161 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Color. Top of the head bluish-slate ; back light-green, dotted with fuliginous. A 

 greenish-blue stripe high up on the side, shadowed out on the head from the upper orbit 

 of the eye, more denned above the posterior opercle, and thence extending nearly to the 

 tail. Sides below greenish-silvery, with metallic reflections. Gill-covers and abdomen 

 silvery, with nacreous iridescence. 



Description. Outline of the body ascending from the tip of the snout to the origin 

 of the dorsal fin, thence descending in an equal curve ; hence, the dorsum is regularly 

 gibbous, while the thoracic and the abdominal plane is nearly straight, or with a slight 

 double curve ; convex anteriorly, concave posteriorly. Head elongated, sharp, wedge- 

 shaped ; broad above posteriorly, attenuated below. Length of the head one fifth the 

 length of the body, and a third longer than the greatest depth of the body ; its greatest 

 width above, one third its length ; its width below, a mere line. Eyes large, situated 

 on the anterior third of the head ; their diameter is equal to two thirds of the distance 

 between them. Jaws unequal ; the upper much the longer, and nearly concealing the 

 lower, which shuts into it as into a groove; jaws armed with very minute teeth. Gill- 

 covers elongated, yet rounded. Scales very large and deciduous. 



First dorsal commencing just anterior to the median line ; its first ray the longer ; 

 subquadrangular. 



Pectorals rather small, situated low, and just posterior to the opercula, with an elon- 

 gated scapular scale at the base ; this is nearly its own length. 



Ventrals commence a little anterior to a perpendicular from the commencement of 

 the dorsal fin. The basic iliac scale is also elongated, and nearly its own length. 



Anal about as far posterior to the ventrals as these were to the pectorals ; about twice 

 the length of the dorsal. 



Caudal fin deeply forked. 



The fin rays are as follows : — D. 8. P. 17. V. 5. A. 14. C. 18. 



Length, three and a half inches. 



Remarks. A fine specimen of this species was brought to me in November, 1852, 

 from Provincetown, by Dr. Charles Girard, now of Washington, D. C. I have retained 

 the specific name originally given it by Mitchill, and very properly affixed by Girard, 

 although Valenciennes has thought proper to change it. 



Mr. Baird, in his " Report to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on the 

 Fishes of the New Jersey Coast, as observed in the Summer of 1854," remarks that 

 " the Anchovy made its appearance early in August, in the shallow waters along the 

 beach, although of very small size. They became subsequently more abundant ; and 

 towards the end of the month, while hauling a large net in the surf, many were taken 



