NATURAL HISTORY. 37 
head. These fish are taken in the sean-net, or are 
raked out of the sand by moonlight with a peculiar 
weapon, not unlike a sickle. 
Sand-Smelt, see Syze/t. 
When mackerel-railing, still more frequently 
when fishing for mackerel with the drift-line, the 
amateur may catch a fish that at first 
puzzles him, its general outline  re- 
sembling that of the commoner fish. The colour- 
ing is more sober, a bluish-grey along the back and 
sides without any of the silvery bands, and there 
are also bony plates along the lateral line. This is 
a scad, or horse-mackerel. It is useless as food ; 
and is said, though I have not noticed it, to grunt 
on being removed from the water. This August, in 
Cornwall, my boatman caught one of over 3 lbs, 
Shark, see Blue and Porbeagle. 
The shrimp is a smaller crustacean than the 
prawn ; indeed they cannot easily be confused, as 
the shrimp lacks the nippers and serrated Shrimp 
beak of the other. In habits, too, it is 
different, and instead of springing backwards when 
disturbed, it prefers subsiding in the sand, throwing 
up a cloud with its long swimming-feet, and 
burrowing with incredible rapidity. The shrimp 
may be taken in the ordinary shove-net. It should, 
if possible, be used alive, but I have known pout, 
when in the humour, take the firmer inside of 
boiled shrimp in preference to any other bait. 
Skate, see Rays. 
There is a small relative of the salmon, known 
in Scotland as the “sparling,” and with us 
as the smelt, which is excellent eating, and 
which, on our east coast at any rate, affords some 
Scad 
Smelt 
