THE AKGEXTINE. 



The Aegentine, Scopehts borealis, Nilsson, Argentina s]ihyr(Bna, Penn. 



" A specimen of this extremely beautiful little fish was found in a dying state 

 on the beach at Killiney Bay, near Dublin, by Professor Oldham, on the 11th 

 of March, 1847. It was shown to me on the following morning in Dublin, by 

 that gentleman, who subsequently deposited it in the Dublin University Mu- 

 seum. 



" This specimen is 2| inches in total length, and so fully agrees with that de- 

 scribed and figured by Dr. W. B. Clarke in the 2nd volume of Charlesworth's 

 Magazine of Natural History (1838), as to render any description uimecessary. 

 It having been dried up before being transferred to spirits, a positive enumeration 

 of the rays in the fins is impracticable, but they are in all the fins about the 

 number given by Dr. Clarke : the anal fin, however, extends considerably further 

 along the body (for 4| lines) than represented in his figure, although it there 

 appears as extending to twice the length that it does in Pennant's fish. It co7n- 

 mences in the specimen under examination, as Dr. Clarke and Mr. Yarrell 

 (B. F. vol. ii. p. 164, 2nd edit.) figure it, in a line with the last gutta of the 

 upper row, but extends as far as the first gutta on the ventral line beyond the 

 vacant space. The guttee in all the series are — what I did not anticipate — pre- 

 cisely in number as in Dr. Clarke's specimen, and even where he remarks that 

 one ' appears to have been obliterated ' in the row of the smallest guttae extend- 

 ing from the commencement of the anal to that of the caudal fin, it is wanting on 

 both sides of the specimen iinder examination. See Dr. Clarke's paper, p. 23, and 

 Yarrell, p. 164, for a detailed notice of these guttae. Some writers on the argen- 

 tine — as Dr. Clarke at p. 23, and Mr. Yarrell at p. 25 of the same volume, in his 

 remarks on that gentleman's communication — seem inclined to believe that among 

 the very few examples of this fish obtained on the British coasts, two species 

 have been taken. The anal fin certainly is very short in Pennant's X'7"''fi> hut 

 the author himself is silent respecting the fin and its number of rays, so that we 

 have only the engraving on which to form a judgment. By making a fair allow- 

 ance for the injury that may have occurred to the very delicate and fragile fins 

 of this species, and for a due want of critical accuracy in the draughtsman and 

 engraver, there is not in my opinion sufficient reason for believing that the 

 argentines hitherto noticed as taken in the British seas were of more than one 

 species, nor, judging from Nilsson's description of the specimen taken on the 

 coast of Norway, do I see reason for considering it as distinct. This author 

 refers Pennant's fish to his Scopelus borealis." — [Published by Mr. Thompson iji 

 Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. p. 171. — Ed.] 



The Herring, Clnpea Ilarengus, Linn., 



Is common around the coast. 



Authors referred to : — Payne ; Dr. J. D. Marshall ; M'Skimmin. 



This fish is so generally distributed, and the usual modes of capturing 

 it have been so frequently described, that it is unnecessary to enter into 

 details respecting the latter. Along the coasts of Down and Antrim 

 large quantities have, of late years, been taken by means of hand-lines. — 

 The hooks are dressed with feathei's, and the time of fishing is in the 

 evenings and about sunrise. The practice seems to have been borroMed 

 from the Scottish Highlanders. 



I received from Dr. J. L. Drummond two young herrings, taken in his 

 presence at the quay, near the Custom House, Dublin, in July, 1831, 

 where, for a considerable time, he remarked some boys amusing them- 

 selves by catching them in great numbers — almost as fast as they could 

 draw them uj), nearly all being taken without any bait. The lines Avere 

 kept constantly moving on the water, which Avas muddy, and the fishes 

 probably mistook the hooks thus in motion for living objects: nearly all 

 of them were caught by the mouth. They diff'ered very little in size. 



