122 PHYSOSTOMI. 



Smelt, Couch, Fish. Brit. Isles, iv, p. 276, pi. ccxxvii. 



B. vii-dii, D. 10-12 I 0, P. 11-12, V. 8-9, A. 13-16 (1?), C. 19, L. 1. 60-65, 

 L. tr. 7/11, Ccec. pyl. 7, Vert. 60-62. 



Length of head 4^- to 5i, of caudal fin 6^- to 7, height of body 6 to 6? or even 

 7 in the total length. Eyes — diameter of each 4| to 6? in the length of the head, li 

 to 2 diameters from the end of the snout, and 2 apart. Its back is more rounded 

 than its abdominal edge ; sides rather flattened. Lower jaw the longer ; the 

 posterior extremity of the maxilla reaches to beneath the hind edge of the orbit. 

 Teeth — those in the upper smaller than those in the lower jaw, where they are 

 in two rows, the inner the larger, they increase in size posteriorly. Large fang- 

 like ones on the vomer. Teeth also present on the tongue. Fins — The first dorsal 

 commences midway between the hind edge of the eye and the base of the caudal 

 fin ; the second or adipose dorsal over the middle of the anal. Ventrals inserted 

 below the anterior rays of the dorsal fin. Caudal forked. Scales — cycloid and 

 deciduous ; 6 rows between the lateral-line and the base of the ventral fin. 

 Lateral-line — indistinct after the first few scales. Ccecal pylori — seven very short 

 ones, scarcely perceptible except after the intestines have been distended. Colours 

 — of a light olive-green, superiorly, becoming silvery shot with purple on the 

 sides and beneath. A wide silvery band passes along each side, numerous fine 

 black dots are present on the head, back, dorsal and caudal fins more especially 

 in large examples. Caudal dark edged. Eyes silvery. 



Varieties — Linnaeus considered that in the Baltic there were two forms, one 

 termed nors possessed a foul odour, which in the early spring when the peasants 

 come to buy it, fills all the streets of Upsal with the smell ; adding that at this 

 period agues prevail there. Valenciennes considered this to be 0. spirinchus, 

 Pallas, having a shorter body than the common form, and that it must have been 

 from one of this variety that Bloch figured his fish in plate xxviii. Bloch 

 erroneously believed that the same cause occasioned like results in London. 



Names-. — Svielt is said to be derived from its possessing a peculiar odour : 

 resembling cucumbers, violets, or rushes. Jonston imagined that the term smelt 

 was used in the sense of smelting metals, and derived from the transparent 

 appearance of the fish, as if it were going to melt away. Sir J. Browne termed them 

 spirincJies, and a small one a priame. The Germans, owing to its aroma, term it 

 the " stinkfisch," and Linnaeus observes that the odour from some, warrants 

 the German epithet : Taylor (Hardw. Sc. Gossip) has known the smelts to come 

 up in such numbers that it was easy to detect the peculiar cucimiher smell which 

 distinguishes them, by walking along the river side. SparliiKj is a corruption 

 of the French term " Eperlan," or else the two words are of a similar origin. 

 Sprot is termed by Palsgrave to be a " sprat " or a " smelt." Skurring, North- 

 umberland: Prim is the fry (East). Sibbald (Scotia, lUustrata) has sjx Apua 

 vera, which he termed Sparling, Apua or Aphia were names which used to be 

 applied to a goby. De spiering or spierling, Dutch. Eperlan, French. 



Habits. — A gregarious and voracious species, remaining with us throughout 

 the year, and passing a portion of each season in fresh, and the remainder, as a 

 rule, in salt water, but irregular in its migrations, continuing in some rivers five 

 or six months, in others hardly as many weeks. It is generally found in rivers 

 or fresh waters, from August until May. In the Thames it rarely ascends above 

 Woolwich, but Buckland in March, 1868, received three live ones captured nearly 

 as high as Teddington, while others were taken near Kew Bridge. This year 

 (1882) some were present at the end of September, and had selected their 

 spawning quarters in the tideway opposite Chiswick Mill, and Strand-on-the- 

 Green. 



One fully 9 inches long was captured while bleak fishing at Wooden-bridge- 

 creek, Hammersmith. It drives the dace before it, these latter fish ascending 

 to Richmond, Isle worth, &c. (Field). Lubbock observed the same migrations of 

 roach and dace in Norfolk, fleeing from the smelts,* which regularly ascend the 



* M. de la Blanchere observes that the odour of the smelt drives other fish away, and thus 

 protects it I'roiu its enemies. 



