ANCHOVIES IN THE ENOxLTSH CHANNEL. 



329 



dictionary two derivations are given, but neither seems in the 

 least degree probable. According to Diez the Italian acciuga 

 is derived from a Latin word apya, which is altered from aphya, and 

 this represents the Greek a\pvr). This last word was applied to small 

 fishes, which may have included the anchovy. The ''ga^' of the Italian 

 word Diez considers as a suffix. In many Italian dialects the name is 

 anjova or anjoa. Another theory is that the Spanish anchova is 

 derived from the Basque name anchoa, which is identified with 

 antzuia, meaning dry; so that anchovy means the dried fish. But 

 there is no evidence that anchovies were used in the dried state. 

 It seems more probable that the modern names are all derived from 

 an unknown Latin name. 



The identification of the fish called encrasicholus by ancient Greek 

 authors with the anchovy is, according to Eondelet, proved by the 

 fact that the modern Greeks in his time still called it encrasicholus. 



Mediaeval naturalists continued to call the species encrasicholus. 

 Linnasus placed it in his system as Clupea encrasicholus, and Cuvier 

 afterwards removed it to the position it now holds in a separate 

 genus under the name Engraulis encrasicholus. 



The anchovy is at once distinguished from any species of Clupea, 

 from a herring, pilchard, or sprat, by the large and peculiar mouth. 

 The depth of the gape in the anchovy is very large in proportion to 

 the size of the fish. In the species of Clupea the angle of the mouth 

 is below the middle of the eye -, in the anchovy the angle of the 

 mouth is a long way behind the eye, farther behind the eye than 

 the eye is from the end of the snout. In the species of Clupea the 

 apex of the upper jaw is at the end of the snout, so that the mouth 

 is terminal ; in the anchovy the mouth is on the lower side of the 

 head as in a shark, and the snout projects forwards beyond the jaws. 

 In the species of Clupea when the mouth is opened the lower end 

 of the maxillary bone is drawn forwards, so that the sides of the 

 gape are closed ; in the anchovy the maxillary bone does not move 

 in this way, and when the mouth is opened the sides of the long 

 gape are open. The fins of the anchovy are very similar to those 

 of the species of Clupea ; there is a single dorsal fin as in all 



