THE ARGENTINE. 
175 
The Argentine, Scopelus borealis , Nilsson, Argentina sphgrcena, Penn. 
“ A specimen of this extremely beautiful little fish was found in a dying state 
on the beach at Killiney Bay, near Dublin, by Professor Oldham, on the 11th 
of March, 1847. It was shown to me on the following morning in Dublin, by 
that gentleman, who subsequently deposited it in the Dublin University Mu- 
seum. 
“ This specimen is 2| inches in total length, and so fully agrees with that de- 
scribed and figured by Dr. W. B. Clarke in the 2nd volume of Charlesworth’s 
Magazine of Natural History (1838), as to render any description unnecessary. 
It having been dried up before being transferred to spirits, a positive enumeration 
of the rays in the fins is impracticable, but they are in all the fins about the 
number given by Dr. Clarke : the anal fin, however, extends considerably further 
along the body (for 4§ lines) than represented in his figure, although it there 
appears as extending to twice the length that it does in Pennant’s fish. It com- 
mences in the specimen under examination, as Dr. Clarke and Mr. Yarrell 
(B. F. vol. ii. p. 164, 2nd edit.) figure it, in a line with the last gutta of the 
upper row, but extends as far as the first gutta on the ventral line beyond the 
vacant space. The guttee in all the series are — what I did not anticipate — pre- 
cisely in number as in Dr. Clarke’s specimen, and even where he remarks that 
one ‘ appears to have been obliterated ’ in the row of the smallest guttee extend- 
ing from the commencement of the anal to that of the caudal fin, it is wanting on 
both sides of the specimen under examination. See Dr. Clarke’s paper, p. 23, and 
Yarrell, p. 164, for a detailed notice of these guttae. Some writers on the argen- 
tine — as Dr. Clarke at p. 23, and Mr. Yarrell at p. 25 of the same volume, in his 
remarks on that gentleman’s communication — seem inclined to believe that among 
the very few examples of this fish obtained on the British coasts, two species 
have been taken. The anal fin certainly is very short in Pennant’s figure , but 
the author himself is silent respecting the fin and its number of ray's, so that we 
have only the engraving on which to form a judgment. By making a fair allow- 
ance for the injury that may have occurred to the very delicate and fragile fins 
of this species, and for a due want of critical accuracy in the draughtsman and 
engraver, there is not in my opinion sufficient reason for believing that the 
argentines hitherto noticed as taken in the British seas were of more than one 
species, nor, judging from Nilsson’s description of the specimen taken on the 
coast of Norway, do I see reason for considering it as distinct. This author 
refers Pennant’s fish to his Scopelus borealis” — [Published by Mr. Thompson in 
Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. p. 171. — Ed.] 
The Herring, Clupea Harengus , Linn., 
Is common around the coast. 
Authors referred to : — Payne ; Dr. J. D. Marshall ; M‘Skimmin. 
This fish is so generally distributed, and the usual modes of capturing 
it have been so frequently described, that it is unnecessary to enter into 
details respecting the latter. Along the coasts of Down and Antrim 
large quantities have, of late years, been taken by means of hand-lines. — 
The hooks are dressed with feathers, and the time of fishing is in the 
evenings and about sunrise. The practice seems to have been borrowed 
from the Scottish Highlanders. 
I received from Dr. J. L. Drummond two young herrings, taken in his 
presence at the quay, near the Custom House, Dublin, in July, 1834, 
where, for a considerable time, he remarked some boys amusing them- 
selves by catching them in great numbers— almost as fast as they could 
draw them up, nearly all being taken without any bait. The lines were 
kept constantly moving on the water, which was muddy, and the fishes 
probably mistook the hooks thus in motion for living objects : nearly all 
of them were caught by the mouth. They differed very little in size. 
