113 
SARDINE. 
Parnell says the dorsal fin commences exactly half way 
between the point of the lower jaw and the end of the middle 
caudal rays, but Mr. Yarrell represents it as commencing 
half way between the point of that jaw and the end of the 
caudal rays; and I have found in a fish of the length of five 
inches and a half, that from the middle rays of the tail to 
the line of the first ray of the dorsal was three inches. The 
origin of the ventral fins is before that of the dorsal, and 
these first-named fins have in several instances the wing or 
separate scale, the absence of which therefore cannot be taken 
as a character. When not deprived of its scales the colour 
and tints are also sometimes beautiful. 
SARDINE. 
Clupea Bardina, 
CuviEE. Risso. Bloch ; pi. 29, f. 2. 
Cuvier says of this fish, it is so much like the Pilchard 
that the only perceptible difference is its inferior size: and a 
persuasion of their being only varieties of each other has 
prevailed widely, although, as Swainson observes, it is not easy 
to believe that fishes which differ so much in their range, and 
in some degree in habits, as the Pilchard and Sardine on the 
one hand, and the Herring and Baltic Membras on the other, 
can be respectively the same. I have supposed that in some 
instances they may have been confounded together, as Duhamel 
certainly has done; and Dr. Gulia has shewn that in the 
Mediterranean three separate species are known by the name 
of Sardina, one of which, the Clupea auro-mttata of Swainson, 
has probably been taken in England. But the following 
record in my notes is deserving of attention, as leading to 
further inquiry, both as regards the distinction of species, 
and the occurrence of the Sardine in Britain. — In the year 
1843, six hogsheads of (Pilchards) taken, the fish about six 
inches long, and multitudes are ;so small as to pass through 
the meshes of the drift-nets. They are marked with spots along 
