450 COLONEL MONTAGU ON NEW AND RARE 



been for a little difference in the first dorsal fin, 

 and the two cirrhi which this has before the nos- 

 trils, If a fourth cirrhus could have been discover- 

 ed, suspicions would have arisen, whether it might 

 not have been the Cimbrius of Gmelin. Its es- 

 sential characters may stand thus : 



With two dorsal fins, the anterior very obscure, 

 except the first ray, which is much the longest : 

 cirrhi three, two before the nostrils, and one on the 

 skin : upper jaw longest : back bluish-green : 

 sides and belly silvery. 



The head is obtuse : eyes lateral ; irides sil- 

 very : all the fins are of a pale colour, and the 

 whole fish is of a silvery resplendence, except the 

 back, which is blue, changeable to dark-green : 

 the pectoral fin is rounded with sixteen or eighteen 

 rays : ventral six or seven, the middle ray con- 

 siderably the longest, and placed much before the 

 pectoral : first dorsal fin commences above the 

 gills, and the rays are very minute and obscure, 

 the first excepted, but more than thirty have been 

 counted : the second dorsal commences close to 

 the other, in a line with the end of the pectoral, 

 and terminates close to the caudal ; the rays are 

 innutperable : the anal fin begins immediately be- 

 hind the vent, and terminates even with the dor- 

 sal : the caudal fin is nearly even at the end. 

 Length about two inches. 



I first noticed many of these fishes thrown up- 

 on the shore in the south of Devonshire, in the 



