116 
MATKAREI, MIDGE. 
witli each other for the prize, and shaking their heads to 
prepare it for being swallowed. Like the Eocklings when in 
the water the ciliated membrane is kept in constant and rapid 
motion, and it is only when thus situated that the position of 
the barbs can he well observed. 
This fish must he very prolific, if we may judge by the 
multitudes which sometimes appear, and of which we have reason 
to believe that vast numbers fall a prey to the more ravenous 
fishes. They have even been found in the stomach of the 
apparently harmless Pilchard; but the time of shedding the 
roe has not been noticed. Wlien they shew themselves with 
us they appear to be of full growth, and they rarely exceed 
the length of an inch and one fourth, the general proportion 
of the body, as compared with the Eocldings, being like that 
of the "VVliiting, excluding the fins, when laid by the side of 
the Common Ling. The head obtuse, compressed, upper jaw 
longest, with four projecting barbies; under jaw with one barbie; 
teeth in both, and in the palate. Eye large and bright; 
behind the head a chink holding a fi-inged membrane. Dorsal 
and anal fins single, reaching to near the tail; pectoral and 
ventral fins rather large for the size of the fish; scales easily 
rubbed olF. Colour on the back bluish green, sometimes 
blackish ; belly and fins brilliant white or silvery. 
It scarcely appears necessary to give a separate notice of a 
fish which was first described by Montagu, and termed by him 
Gadus argenteohis — the^ Silvery Gade, but which he seems to 
have confounded with tlie species we have last described, since 
he represents it as occasionally common on the western coast 
of England, where, since the distinction has been made, it has 
been again recognised. The important mark of difference 
between the ilackarcl Midge and Montagu’s Silvery Gade is, 
that the latter possesses only two barbs in the upper jaw; but 
it appears also to attain a larger size, since Montagu’s specimens 
were two inches in length, and Dr. Gunther mentions examples 
obtained from Greenland which measured three inches. The 
proportions of the head and body are described as the same in 
both, but tbe number of rays in the fins are said to be different; 
those of Couchia glauca being in the dorsal forty-four, anal 
thirty-eight, ventral three; but in Montagu’s Silvery Gade — 
Couchia argentata of Dr. Gunther’s Catalogue of the British 
