112 



SAJlUINE. 



Parnell says the dorsal fin commences exactly half way 

 between the pomt of the lower jaw and the end of the middle 

 caudal rays, but Mr. Yarrell represents it as commencing 

 half way between the point of that jaw and the end of the 

 caudal rays; and I have found in a fish of the length of five 

 inches and a half, that from the middle rays of the tail to 

 the line of the first ray of the dorsal was three inches. 1'he 

 origin of the ventral fins is before that of the dorsal, and 

 these first-named fins have in several instances the wing or 

 separate scale, the absence of which therefore cannot be taken 

 as a character. When not deprived of its scales the colour 

 and tints are also sometimes beautiful. 



SARDINE. 



Clupea Sardina, Cuvier. Rrsso. Bloch; pi. 29, f. 2. 



CuviER says of this fish, it is so much like the Pilchard 

 that the only perceptible difference is its inferior size: and a 

 persuasion of their being only varieties of each other has 

 prevailed widely, although, as Swainson observes, it is not easy 

 to believe that fishes which differ so much in their range, and 

 in some degree in habits, as the Pilchard and Sardine on the 

 one hand, and the Herring and Baltic Membras on the other, 

 can be respectively the same. I have supposed that in some 

 instances they may have been confounded together, as Duhamel 

 certainly has done; and Dr. Gulia has shewn that in the 

 Mediterranean three separate species are known by the name 

 of Sardina, one of which, the Clupea auro-vittata of Swainson, 

 has probably been taken in England. But the following 

 record in my notes is deserving of attention, as leading to 

 further inquiry, both as regards the distinction of species, 

 and the occurrence of the Sardine in Britain. — In the year 

 1843, six hogsheads of (Pilchards) taken, the fish about six 

 inches long, and multitudes are so small as to pass through 

 the meshes of the drift-nets. They are marked with spots along 



