NATURAL HISTORY. 
186 
son, their colours are very fine, being green, spotted with 
bright yellow ; and the gills are of a most vivid and full 
rech When out of season, the green changes to grey and 
the yellow spots turn pale. 
The head is very flat ; the upper jaw broad, and is shorter 
than the lower : the under jaw turns up a little at the end, 
and is marked with minute punctures. 
The teeth are very sharp, disposed not only in the front 
of the upper jaw, but in both sides of the lower, in the 
roof of the mouth, and often the tongue. The slit of the 
mouth, or the gape, is very wide ; the eyes small. 
The dorsal fin is placed very low on the back, and con- 
sists of twenty-one rays ; the 'pectoral of fifteen ; the ven- 
tral of eleven ; the anal of eighteen. The tail is bifurcated. 
The Gar-pike or Sea-needle , comes in shoals on our 
coasts, and precedes the mackerel. It resembles that fish 
in flavour, but is distinguished from all of the kind by the 
backbone, which turns a fine light green when the fish is 
boiled. It sometimes grows to the length of three feet. 
The jaws are exceeding long, slender, and pointed, and the 
edges of them are armed with numbers of short slender 
teeth. It is sometimes known by the name of the horn-fish. 
The tail is forked. 
The Saury-pike is about eleven inches long, and its jaws 
are protracted like those of the sea-needle. The body also 
resembles that of an eel, but like the mackerel, it has a 
number of small fins near the tail, which is forked. 
The Argentine is a small fish between two and three 
inches long. The body is compressed, and almost of an 
equal breadth to the anal fin. The back is of a dusky 
green, the sides and covers of the gills as if planted with 
silver. It is taken in the sea. 
The Atherine is common in the sea near Southampton, 
where it is called a smelt. It never deserts the place, and 
is constantly taken, except in hard frost. It is about four 
inches in length, the back straight, the belly a little protu- 
berant. Its colour is silvery, tinged with yellow, and below 
the side-line is a row’ of black spots. It is semi-pellucid. 
The Mullet was formerly much celebrated as a treat 
for the epicure, and frequent allusionss to it are found in 
the ancient satyi ists. It is a fish of an elegant form ; is 
generally found by the sea-shores, where it roots like a hog 
