ANCHOVIES. 
991 
of the ventral margin, and the filamentous elongation 
of the first pectoral ray, a peculiarity that extends to 
still more of the pectoral rays in Coilia. Bleeker" 
indeed attempted, following a suggestion of Gunther’s 6 , 
to find a limitation for such a genus in the number 
of rays in the anal fin, more than 50. But a com- 
parison 0 between the two Indian species Stolephorus 
( Setipinna ) telara and St. purava, the latter with 38 — 
47 (or, according to Gunther, 50) anal rays and 
pointed pectoral fins, is enough to show how nearly 
the said characters run into each other. Another ge- 
neric character recognised by Bleeker is the peculiarity 
first observed by Gunther in some Anchovies' 6 , and 
consisting in a more vigorous development of the jatv- 
teeth, among which some are prominent as canines. 
But in other respects these species resemble those with 
small teeth. Last!}' Bleeker has directed attention to 
the varying development of the spiniferous scales at 
a Atl. Ichthyol. Lid. Or. Ne'erl., tome VI, p. 135. 
b Cat., 1. c. 
c See, for example, Day, Fish. Ind., tab. CLVIII, fig. 2 
d Gunther’s subgenera Lycengraulis and Lycothrissa. 
e Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. V, p. 381. From orohrj, equipment 
the sides of some species. 
f Cuv., Reyn. Anim., ed. I, tom. II, p. 174. 
the ventral margin. In conjunction with a more elon- 
gated and terete form of body, these spiniferous scales 
disappear in some forms of the genus, either in the 
postabdominal region alone or throughout a great por- 
tion of the preabdominal as well. These forms are 
also characterized by the shortest anal fin, with at most 
23 rays, and Bleeker proposed to reserve the generic 
name of Stolephorus , coined by Lacepede 0 , for them 
alone. But in these respects too there are intermediate 
forms, and even in the most typical of the last-men- 
tioned species — as for example in the European An- 
chovy — traces of spiniferous scales may be found at 
the preabdominal margin. The genus has been most 
generally known under the later name of EngraulisS 
and about 50 species have been described from tem- 
perate and tropical regions all round the globe, most 
of them purely salt-water fishes, but some visitors to 
the rivers or at least to the estuaries. 
and tab. CLVII, fig. 2 {purava). 
, adornment , and qiegco , bear; with reference to the silvery band along 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
125 
