THE SMELT. 



75 



ABDOMINAL 

 MALACOPTERYGII. 



SALMONID^. 



THE SMELT. 



spiULiNG AND SPARLING. Scotland. 



Osmerus eperlanus, Smelt, Flem. Brit. An. p. 181,sp.48. 



Eperlanus Rondeletii, 

 ,, Schonfeldii, 

 Salmo eperlanus, 



CuviER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 305. 

 WlLLUGHBY, p. 202. 

 WiLLUGHBY, tab. N. 6, fig. 4. 

 LiNNEUs. Bloch, pt. i. pi. 28. 2. 

 Penn, Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 416, pi. 72. 

 Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 48. 



Generic Characters. — Body elongated, covered with small scales : two dorsal 

 fins, the first with rays, the second fleshy, without rays ; ventral fins in a vertical 

 line under the commencement of the first dorsal fin : teeth on the jaws and 

 tongue very long, two distinct rows on each palatine bone, none on the vomer 

 except at the most anterior part ; branchiostegous rays 8. 



The Smelt, as a British fish, appears to be almost ex- 

 clusively confined to the eastern and western coasts of Great 

 Britain. I am not aware of any good authority for the 

 appearance of the true Smelt between Dover and the Land's 

 End.* The fish called Smelt and Sandsmelt along the 



* Mr. Salter, in his Angler's Guide, page 169, says he has caught very fine 

 Smelts by angling in Portsmouth harbour ; but there is very little doubt that the 

 Sandsmelt, or Atherine, which is there abundant, is the fish alluded to. 



G 2 



