PLATE LXXXVIL 
The Atherino is a fish of considerable elegance. In size and ge- 
neral similitude it approaches nearest to the Smelt. Like that delicate 
fish the whole body is semidiaphanous, and partakes of the palest tints 
of iridescent colours, of testaceous, and pellucid white. Though 
sometimes confounded with the smelt by inattentive persons, the Athe- 
rine is at once distinguished by the distinct broad silvery stripe that 
passes along the sides the whole length from the gills to the base of the 
tail, and which in point of splendor even emulates the effect of 
silver at its highest polish. The more accurate observer need not 
be informed, that the second or posterior dorsal fin in the common 
Smelt, as in others of the Salmo tribe to which it appertains, is small, 
fleshy, and destitute of rays, as in the Salmon and Trout, while on 
the contrary the posterior dorsal fin of the Atherine is large, and 
consists of a number of distinct rays connected by a thin pellucid 
film like the other fins. 
Naturalists describe the Atherine as a native of the Mediterranean, 
European, and Egyptian Seas. Forskal found it in the Red Sea: 
Hasselquist at Smyrna: and Sonnini, among the islands of the Archi- 
pelago; Willughby saw it at Venice: Gronovius mentions it as be- 
ing found on the coast of Holland : Duhamel on different coasts of 
France: Brunniche, on that of Sheppy island in England; and Pennant 
as very common in the sea near Southampton, where he tells us it is 
called a smelt. — According to this last author it never deserts South- 
ampton, and is constantly taken there, except in hard frosts. Our 
Atherines are from the coast of Devonshire, where we learn this de- 
licate fish is very abundant, but whether it is found also on other 
coasts of our island, as Pennant intimates, we are unable to determine. 
By accident, or in a few solitary instances, it may have been found on 
other coasts, but we must observe that our enquiries after it in other 
