[ -41 1 



The Great Silver Smelt, Argentina si/ us, Nilss. An 

 Addition to the List of British Fishes. 



By 

 Ernest W. L. Holt. 



By the kindness of Mr. J. Jacobs, to whom the Laboratory is aheady 

 indebted for many specimens of interesr, I received on the 15th June 

 a fine example of the species mentioned above, which had been trawled 

 off the south coast of Ireland. The fish weighed 1 lb. 5 oz., and 

 measured 42 cm., or 16| inches. Though taken at least a day 

 previously, it was in excellently fresh and firm condition. I have 

 already recorded its capture in a letter to the Field and at a meeting 

 of the Zoological Society, but the locality was inexactly given in each 

 of these communications. I have since learned that the correct locality 

 is 50° 20' N., 8° 25' W., or about seventy-five miles true S. of the Old 

 Head of Kinsale, depth seventy-four fathoms. A number of the same 

 species were trawled, and some were found to be excellent eating. 

 I have no means of deciding whether the occurrence of A. silus on 

 the ground indicated is normal or exceptional. If it can be taken 

 in any quantity it should prove a valuable addition to our list of 

 food-fishes. 



I can find no previous record of A. sihis in British waters, since 

 Edward, according to Day, acknowledged that his specimen was iden- 

 tical with the species figured and described by Day, which is the 

 lesser silver smelt, A. sphyra^na, Linn. Other European records are 

 from the Scandinavian and Jutland coasts, always in water of con- 

 siderable depth. The species is also known from the Atlantic coasts 

 of North America. A good figure is given by Smitt (Hist. Scand. 

 Fish., Ed. 2, II.), who states that all the examples of which he has 

 acquaintance had the stomach everted by the expansion of the air- 

 bladder, and so yielded no evidence as to the nature of the food. 

 In my specimen the air-bladder was not abnormally dilated, and 

 the oesophagus and stomach were filled with a mass of finely triturated 

 animal matter, which appeared, judging from experience in similar 



