430 PISCES (OSSEI) MALACOPT. [THYMALLUS. 



attached low down, and just below the produced lobe of the gill-cover : 

 ventrals beneath the commencement of the dorsal : number of fin-rays, 



D. 11; A. 17; C. 19; P. 11; V. 8. 



{Colours.) Back whitish, tinged with green; upper part of the sides 

 varied with blue ; lower part of the sides, and belly, bright silvery : 

 irides silvery ; pupil black : fins pale. 



A common species on the British coasts, ascending rivers in December, 

 January, and February, for the purpose of spawning, which takes place 

 in March and April. Food, according to Bloch, worms, and small shells. 

 Varies greatly in size; a circumstance which has induced the author 

 just mentioned to form two species of it. Derives its English name of 

 Smelt from a peculiar scent which it emits, and which has been com- 

 pared by some to cucumbers, by others to violets. Is sometimes called 

 a Sparling*. 



GEN. 42. THYMALLUS, Cuv. 

 112. T. vulgaris, Nilss. (Grayling.) 



T. vulgaris, Nilss. Prod. Ichth. Scand. p. 13. Thymallus, mil. 

 Hist. Pise. p. 187. tab. N. 8. Salmo Thymallus, Linn. Syst. Nat. 

 torn. i. p. 512. Block, Ichth. pi. 24. Don. Brit. Fish. vol. iv. pi. 88. 

 Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 104. Coregonus Thymallus, Flem. Brit. An. 

 p. 181. Grayling, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. p. 31 1. pi. 61. no. 150. 

 Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. in. p. 414. pi. 72. Ombre commune, Cuv. 

 Reg. An. torn. n. p. 306. 



LENGTH. From ten to fifteen, rarely eighteen, inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Back slightly elevated at the commencement of 

 the dorsal fin, from which point it falls gradually to the snout : greatest 

 depth one-fifth of the entire length ; thickness not quite half the depth : 

 head contained five times and a half in the entire length : snout rather 

 short ; obtuse, and rounded : gape small : upper jaw a little the longest : 

 maxillary, and all the other teeth, small and fine : lateral line at first 

 slightly descending, afterwards straight : scales large, disposed in longi- 

 tudinal rows ; seven and a half above the lateral line, the same number 

 below it: dorsal commencing at one-third, and occupying about one- 

 fourth, of the entire length ; being twice as long as high ; its greatest 

 elevation three-fourths of the depth of the body ; anterior rays gradually 

 increasing from the first, which is very short, to the eighth and ninth, 

 which are longest ; tenth and succeeding rays slightly decreasing ; first 

 eight simple, the rest branched : adipose situate at nearly two-thirds of 

 the distance from the dorsal to the base of the caudal : anal commencing 

 a little beyond the tip of the reclined dorsal ; shaped like that fin, but 

 much smaller ; first five rays simple, the rest branched : caudal deeply 

 forked: pectorals three-fourths the length of the head: ventrals about 

 the same; attached beneath the middle of the dorsal; with a long 

 narrow scale in their axillae : 



B. 10; D. 22 ; A. 15, the last double ; C. 19, and some short ones ; P. 15 ; V. 11. 



(Colours.) Upper part of the head dusky ; back and sides silvery gray, 

 marked with longitudinal dusky streaks : dorsal spotted ; the spots 

 arranged in longitudinal lines : other fins plain. 



* I may state in this place that the Mallotus villosus, or Capelin, was inserted by error in my 

 Catalogue as a doubtful inhabitant of the British seas. There is no recorded authority for such 

 insertion. 



