189 



the recognition of the species, it seems difficult to understand 

 how it has no generic value. 



In the little fish I mention the upper jaw is shorter than the 

 lower one ; the abdomen is serrated from below the pectorals, or 

 even a little in advance of their insertion ; the anal fin has 

 twenty rays ; no teeth are visible on the jaws, nor on the palate, 

 but some exist on the tongue ; dorsal inserted a little behind the 

 ventrals, which are well developed. A well-defined broad, 

 silvery, longitudinal stripe runs on the sides. 



The assemblage of these characters would place this sort in 

 Dr. Grunther's genus, Chipea; but the situation of the dorsal fin 

 in respect to the ventrals, is in opposition to all he says on this 

 subject in his descriptions ; Cuvier and Valenciennes, on the 

 contrary, state, in speaking of Meletta Vulgaris, that the ventrals 

 are rather in advance of the dorsal. 



MELETTA FOV^l-HOLLANDJE. 



Meletta Novse-hollandise, Cuv. Sf Vol., vol. xx., p. 376. 

 {The Smelt.) 



Height four and a-half times in the total length ; head five and 

 a-half in the same ; eye as long as the snout, and contained 

 three and a-half times in the head ; the lower jaw longer than 

 the upper ; mouth extensible ; no teeth on the palate ; maxillary 

 extending to below the front edge of the eye ; body com- 

 pressed ; forty-six scales on the longitudinal line ; sixteen rays to 

 the dorsal ; twenty to the anal ; the caudal has nineteen rays, with 

 five short ones on each side ; the pectorals fourteen rays, The 

 height of the first ray of the dorsal is equal to the distance from 

 the end of the snout to the anterior edge of the eye ; the other 

 rays go on decreasing as they extend backwards, and the last are 

 only one-half of the height of the first; the caudal is very 

 strongly bifurcated, being twice as long on its sides as at its 

 centre ; the ventrals are as long as the dorsal, and a little shorter 

 than the pectorals. 



The general colour is of a light green, with a broad, well- 

 marked, silvery streak on each side ; the belly is white ; the 

 operculum and throat are silvery and iridescent ; the dorsal and 

 caudal are yellow, and the other fins translucid ; the eye silvery. 



