Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 579 



Dorsal with outer margin straight or slightly convex, its base 1.5—2.0 times 

 snout, its origin a little closer to base of caudal than to tip of snout, its distance from 

 latter about 52— 54''/o of SL in males and 55-60 "/o in females, with 12—14 rays," the 

 first 2 or 3 unbranched, the longest ray 0.9—1.3 times length of base. Dorsal adipose 

 fin with outer margin straight or slightly convex anteriorly and straight or slightly 

 concave posteriorly, situated behind dorsal, its base 1.7— 1.8 times in dorsal base, its 

 origin ranging from about over origin of anal fin to about over middle of anal base, 

 its height 3.0—5.8 times in its base. Caudal deeply forked, its tips pointed in some 

 but rounded in others. Anal with outer margin weakly convex in mature males and 

 indented opposite 9th and loth segmented rays but about straight in females, its base 

 1. 5-1. 7 times dorsal base in males but 1.2-1.4 times in females, its origin from tip 

 of snout a distance of 70-73 "/o of SL in males but 75-79 % in females, and its 

 origin from origin of pelvics a distance of 1.5-1.7 times in distance between anal 

 origin and caudal base in males but 1.2-1.4 times in females, with 19—21 rays (17—22 

 reported)," the first 3 or 4 unbranched, the longest ray 2.3—3.1 times in anal base. 

 Pelvics with rear margin weakly convex, their origin varying from slightly in advance 

 of, to slightly behind, dorsal origin, with 8 rays, the first (outer) ray unbranched, the 

 longest ray 1.4- 1.8 times in head. Pectorals with rear margin broadly rounded, their 

 area, when spread, larger in males than in females of about the same size, their origin 

 under rear margin of opercle, with i 8-20 rays, the first (upper) unbranched, the longest 

 ray 1.5— 1.7 times in head in males but 1.8— 2.1 times in females. 



Vertebrae 64—70 reported. 



Sexual Dimorphism. See p. 573. 



Color. In life, translucent, olive to bottle green above, with metallic reflections 

 like the American smelt (p. 56 1) but with the back and head darker at spawning time. 

 Sides a uniform silvery color below lateral line. Scales dotted with very small to minute 

 dusky specks. Belly white. Lining of body cavity a dusky silvery color. 



Size. The largest standard lengths (snout to base of caudal fin) that we have found 

 to be definitely recorded for any Atlantic Capelin are 215 mm for males and 230 mm 

 for one female, from the east coast of Newfoundland, where spawning males range 

 from 1 30 to 215 mm and spawning females from no to 210 mm TL.^* An average of 

 146.7 mm SL or 164.4 ^nm TL reported by Vladykov for 63 specimens (sex not speci- 

 fied) from the inner part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia 

 {114: tab. 2, 202), suggests that Capelin may tend to mature at a somewhat smaller size 

 in higher than in lower temperatures. The weights of Newfoundland Capelin at diflFerent 

 total lengths are given in Table iv. 



Development and Growth. Newfoundland Capelin produce about 15,000—52,000 

 eggs, according to size.^^ And it is not likely that they are either much more productive 

 or much less so in other parts of the Atlantic. The eggs of Newfoundland fish (Fig. 



27. Last two rays of dorsal and anal, branching from a common base, were counted as one. 



28. Totals of 59,042 males and 23,567 females measured by Templeman (iio: 145). 



29. Counts by W. P. Templeman. 



37' 



