SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 133 



The menhaden is not extensively eaten, as its extreme oiliness is an objection; 

 in fall, however, it is a very palatable fish when freshly caught and fried. Every 

 year many of the poorer people about Beaufort salt several barrels for wintei- 

 use. Recently the fish has begun to figure as a food fish in New England, and 

 has at times sold fresh in Boston at ten cents apiece. Nearly two centuries ago 

 Lawson said of this fish in North Carolina: 



Fat-backs are a small fish, like mullets, but the fattest ever known. They put nothing 

 into the pan, to fry these, They are excellent sweet food. 



Family ENGRAULID.E. The Anchovies. 



A numerous family of small sea fishes, closely related to the herrings (Clu- 

 peidse), usually found in schools on sandy shores, and preyed on by many fishes. 

 The species are for the most part too small to be economically important in the 

 United States, but are rather extensively utilized in the Old World. The ancho- 

 vies are readily recognized by their peculiar head. The mouth is very large, the 

 gape wide, the upper jaw long, pointed, and extending far backward, the lower 

 jaw weak, inconspicuous, and much shorter than the upper, and the eye large 

 and placed anteriorly. Other characters are the elongate compressed body, 

 belly rounded or weakly compressed; teeth small, in a single row in each jaw; 

 opercles thin, branchiostegals 7 to 14 in number, pseudobranchige present, gill- 

 membranes free from isthmus, gill-rakers long and slender; scales thin, cycloid, 

 no lateral line; a single dorsal fin; caudal fin forked. Of the 6 American genera, 

 only one is represented on our Atlantic coast. 



Genus ANCHOVIA Jordan & Evermann. Anchovies. 



Anchovies of this genus are found in warmer waters in all parts of the world, 

 going in large schools. They have a silvery white color and usually a broad 

 lateral silvery band. The principal fatures of the genus are the oblong, com- 

 pressed body; very long maxillary extending far beyond the eye; conical, com- 

 pressed snout overhanging the oblique mouth; small teeth on jaws and roof of 

 mouth; branchial membranes nearly or quite separated; dorsal fin small, anterior 

 to anal; anal fin rather long (rays 12 to 40); and an axillary scale with each pec- 

 toral and ventral fin. The two species known from North Carolina may be thus 

 distinguished : 



i. Anal rays 20; length 4 to 6 inches brownii. 



a. Anal rays 25 to 28; length 2.5 inches niitchilli. 



113. ANCHOVIA BROWNII (Gnielin) . 

 "Smelt"; "Bait"; Anchovy; Striped Anchovy 



Atherina brownii Gmelin, Systema Natura", 1397, 1788; Jamaica 

 Engraulis brownii. Yarrow. 1877, 215; Beaufort. 

 Engrauhs vittatus, Jordan & Gilbert, 1879, 385; Beaufort. 



Stolephorus brownii, Jordan, 1886, 26; Beaufort. Jenkins, 1887, 86; Beaufort. Jordan & Evermann, 1896, 443. 

 Linton, 1905, 353; Beaufort. 



Diagnosis. — ^Body compressed, not elevated, depth contained 4.75 times in length; head 

 contained 3.75 times in length; snout .2 length of head; maxillary extending nearly to gill-open- 



