i io THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



of the head, f to i diameter from the end of the snout, and 

 I diameter apart. Cleft of the mouth oblique, the posterior 

 extremity of the maxilla reaches to beneath the first third 

 of the orbit ; the lower jaw somewhat projects in front of 

 the upper. Teeth. Present in the jaws, vomer, palatines, 

 and in a median patch along the tongue. Fins. The first 

 dorsal commences over the middle of the ventral fins, its 

 second and third spines longest, equalling the highest rays 

 of the second dorsal, and f of the height of the body below 

 it. The second dorsal commences above the sixth anal 

 ray. Ccecal appendages absent. Colours. Semi-diapha- 

 nous, of an olive-brown along the back, becoming silvery 

 tinted with purple on the sides and beneath. Numerous 

 fine black dots along the edges of the scales in the upper 

 half of the body. A burnished silvery band, darkest 

 superiorly, extends from the eye to the centre of the base 

 of the caudal fin ; it occupies the lower half of the fourth, 

 the whole of the fifth and the upper half of the sixth row of 

 scales in the anterior region of the body. 



Varieties. In form : Jenyns found the eye in some 

 examples having fifty-one vertebrae, 2\ diameters in the 

 length of the head. A s to colour: Thompson observes that 

 the atherine of the north of Ireland differs from the English 

 specimens in being of a darker, and consequently a less 

 sandy colour. 



Habits. This appears to be rather a local species, 

 generally living in small communities along the shores, or 

 in harbours or bays where the ground is rough and sandy, 

 and the water smooth, retiring in winter to deeper water. 

 Couch remarks that he had been informed of instances in 

 the shallow waters of a harbour where numbers which had 

 been surprised by a sudden frost had been left dead on the 

 shore. It eats small Crustacea and vegetable matter. 



