8 Mr. Yarrell's Descriptions of three 



scribed, as far as I have been able to ascertain, in any of the different works 

 of European ichthyologists. 



From the prevailing blue colour of this fish, I have been induced to call it 

 the Azurine, Leuciscus coeruleus. It belongs to Cuvier's second division of 

 the ^enus Leuciscus of Klein, a division intended to include those species in 

 which the dorsal fin is placed, in a vertical line, over the space between the 

 ventral and anal fins, and of which division our Red-eye, Bleak, and Minnow, 

 are examples. The specific charactei-s of the Azurine may be stated as 

 follows : 



L. ovato-lanceolatus, pinna dprsali pone pinnas ventrales posita ; dorso 

 plumbeo, ventre argenteo, pinnis albis. 



B. 3. D. 10. P. 16. V. 9. A. 12. C. 19. 



Tlie depth of this fish is to its length as 7 to 2, and it is therefore in shape 

 very similar to our Red-eye ; but is at once distinguished from that species by 

 the silvery whiteness of the abdomen, which in the Red-eye is of a brilliant 

 golden orange ; and also by its white fins, which in the other are invariably of 

 a fine vermillion. It also differs in the number of its fin-rays. 



The Azurine has the upper part of the head, back and sides of slate blue, 

 passing into silvery white beneath, and both shining with metallic lustre ; the 

 irides white, tinged with pale straw yellow ; ail the fins white ; the lateral 

 line, descending rapidly from the upper edge of the operculum, takes a curve 

 parallel to the deep convex line of the abdomen ; the scales large, marked 

 with a variable number of radiating lines ; the head small, depressed, and 

 broad ; the back arched ; the dorsal fin commences half-way between the 

 posterior edge of the eye and the end of the scaly portion of the tail ; the first 

 dorsal fin-ray is short, the second ray the longest, the last ray double. The 

 muzzle is blunt ; the mouth small, and without teeth ; the eye large ; nostrils 

 pierced on the upper surface of the nose, midway between the eye and the 

 upper lip ; operculum of two portions, the upper one large and marked with 

 radiating lines. The abdomen convex ; the pectoral fins long, reaching nearly 

 to the origin of the ventral fins, which arise, on a vertical line, considerably in 

 advance of the dorsal fin, and thus bring that fin over the interval between the 

 ventral and anal fins. From the vent the body diminishes rapidly, and the 



