398 SPINY-FINNED GROUP. 



of the mouth straight, oblique, and extending at least as far back as the line of 

 the border of the eye. These fish derive their popular title from their resemblance 

 to the true smelts, from which they may be distinguished at a glance by the 

 small spinous first dorsal fin. While the majority are coast fishes, associating in 

 large shoals, others are fresh-water, although these also retain the same habit. 

 The genus has a wide distribution in temperate and tropical seas, some of the 

 species ranging from Eastern Africa to India. Atherines are very abundant in 

 the Mediterranean, where the fry cling together for some time after hatching 

 in enormous masses. Montagu writes that these fish are caught in great 

 abundance on the south coast of Devonshire "in the creeks and estuaries, but 



SAND-SMELT AND CUVIER's SQUARE-TAIL (J nat. size). 



never in rivers above the flow of the tide ; and they appear to continue near 

 shore through the months from autumn to spring, being caught for the table 

 more or less during the whole of that time, but are greatly superior in spring, 

 when the males are full of milt as the females are of roe/' The British species 

 seldom exceed 6 inches in length, and, like the other members of the genus, are 

 marked by a broad silvery stripe along each side of the body. On the coasts and 

 in the fresh waters of Australia, the sand-smelts are represented by Atherin- 

 ichthys, in which the muzzle is longer, and the cleft of the mouth usually shorter. 

 The curious Mediterranean and Atlantic fish known as Cuvier's 

 square-tail (Tetragonurus cuvieri), shown on the right side of our 

 illustration, is the sole member of a genus characterised by the somewhat elongate 



Square-Tail 



