Percesoces and Rhegnopteri 435 
side Labidesthes sicculus, which swarms in clear streams from 
Lake Ontario to Texas. This species, three to four inches 
long, has the snout produced and a very bright silvery stripe 
along the side. Large and small species of silversides occur 
Fia. 342.—Blue Smelt or Pez del Rey, Atherinopsis californiensis Girard. 
San Diego. 
in the sea along the California coast, where they are known 
familiarly as “blue smelt”’ or ‘‘Peixe Re.’ The most impor- 
tant of these and the largest member of the family, reaching 
a length of eighteen inches, is Atherinopsis californiensis, an 
important food-fish throughout California, everywhere wrongly 
known as smelt. Atherinops affinis is much like it, but has 
‘Fie. 343 —Flower of the surf. Iso flos-maris, Jordan & Starks. Enoshima, 
Y-shaped teeth. Tso flos-maris, called. Nami-no-hana, or 
flower of the surf, is a shining little fish with belly sharp like 
that of a herring. It lives in the surf on the coast of Japan. 
Melanotenia nigrans of Australia (family Melanotentide) has 
the lateral band jet-black, as has also Melaniris balsanus of the 
rivers of southern Mexico. Atherinosoma vorax of Australia has 
strong teeth like those of a barracuda. 
Fossil species of Atherina occur in the Italian Eocene, the 
best known being Atherina macrocephala. Another species, 
Rhamphognathus paralepoides, allied to Menidia, occurs in the 
Eocene of Monte Bolca. 
