THE SMELT, 76 



A ROOM IN. IL 



MALACOFTERYGll. SALMONIDJE. 



THE SMELT. 

 SPiRT.iNG AND SPARLING. Scotland. 



Osmerus eperlanus, Smelt, Flem. Brit. An. p. 181, sp, 48. 

 ,, ,, CuviER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 305. 



Eperlanus Rotideletii, Willughby, p. 202. 



,, Schoiifeldii, ,, Willughby, tab. N. 6, %. 4. 

 Salmo eperlanus, Linnsus. Bloch, pt. i. pi. 28. 2. 



„ „ ,, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 416, pi. 72. 



„ „ Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 48. 



Generic Characters. — Body elongated, covered witli small scales ; two dorsal 

 fins, the first with rays, the second fleshy, without rays ; ventral fins in a vertical 

 line under the commencement of the first dorsal fin : teeth on the jaws and 

 tongue very long, two distinct rows on each palatine bone, none on the vomer 

 except at the most anterior part ; branchiostegous rays 8. 



The Smelt, as a Britisli fish, appears to be almost ex- 

 clusively confined to the eastern and western coasts of Great 

 Britain. I am not aware of any good autliority for the 

 appearance of the true Smelt between Dover and the Land's 

 End.* The fish called Smelt and Sandsmelt alonsf the 



* Mr. Salter, in his Angler's Guide, page 169, says he has caught very fine 

 Smelts by angling in Portsmouth harbour ; but there is very little doubt that the 

 Sandsmelt, or Atherine, which is there abundant, is the fish alluded to. 



G 2 



