THE SAND-SMELT. 231 



with a broad silvery band, with a tinge of blue, extending from the 

 operculum to the base of the tail. Snout short and blunt, very pro- 

 tractile ; under jaw the longest, when the mouth is open ; teeth 

 small and sharp in each jaw, as well as on the vomer and posterior 

 part of the palatines ; eyes large, extending below the middle of the 

 cheeks ; operculum rounded and entire ; preoperculum angular ; be- 

 tween the eyes, a small elevated ridge, extending back nearly to the 

 nape. First dorsal fin with slender spinous rays, commencing over 

 the middle of the ventrals ; third and fourth rays the longest ; the 

 last the shortest, not half the length of the first. Second dorsal re- 

 mote from the first, commencing in a line over the third ray of the 

 anal, and ending over the last ray ; the first ray spiny ; the rest flexi- 

 ble and branched ; the second and third the longest ; the ninth the 

 shortest. Anal fin corresponding with the second dorsal, but rather 

 longer ; ventrals commencing in a vertical line with the tips of the 

 long pectoral rays, and ending in a line with the base of the last ray of 

 the first dorsal ; pectorals as long as from the point of the lower jaw, 

 when open, to the posterior margin of the orbit ; the second and 

 third rays the longest ; the first simple, the rest branched. Scales 

 along the lateral silvery band, about fifty-six in number, becoming 

 very small at the base of the caudal fin. Head and fins more or less 

 freckled with small black spots ; tail forked. Number of fin rays — 

 1st D. 8 ; 2d D. 13 ; P. 16 ; V. 6 ; A. 15 ; C. 17 ; B. 6. 



Mr Yarrell was the first British naturalist to notice that 

 the atherine, which is found so common on the southern 

 shores of England, was not the Atherina hepsetus of Lin- 

 na?us, as Pennant, Donovan, Fleming, and other authors 

 supposed it ; but the Atherina preshyter of Cuvier, which 

 is quite a different species. The atherine, says Colonel 

 Montagu, is as plentiful on some parts of the southern coast 

 of England as the smelt is on the eastern coast, and each 

 appears to have its limits, so that the one does not intrude 

 upon the other; at least, as far as our observation has gone, 

 where one is the other is not. We have traced the smelt 

 along the coast of Lincolnshire, and southwards into Kent, 

 where the atherine appears to be unknown ; but in Hamp- 

 shire the atherine is extremely plentiful, esj/ocially about 

 Southampton, where, for want of knowing the true smelt. 



