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. Gunther’s genus, Glupea ; 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 NOT.a!-H:OLLANI).a:. 
Meletta Novee-hollandise, Guv. ^ Val., vol. xx., p. 876. 
(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. 
