39 8 
SPim -FINNED GR O UP. 
of the mouth straight, oblique, and extending at least as far back as the line of 
the border of the eye. These fish derive their popular title from their resemblance 
to the true smelts, from which they may be distinguished at a glance by the 
small spinous first dorsal fin. While the majority are coast fishes, associating in 
large shoals, others are fresh-water, although these also retain the same habit. 
The genus has a' wide distribution in temperate and tropical seas, some of the 
species ranging from Eastern Africa to India. Atherines are very abundant in 
the Mediterranean, where the fry cling together for some time after hatching 
in enormous masses. Montagu writes that these fish are caught in great 
abundance on the south coast of Devonshire in the creeks and estuaries, but 
SAND-SMELT AND CUVIER’S SQUARE-TAIL (J liat. size). 
never in rivers above the flow of the tide; and they appear to continue near 
shore through the months from autumn to spring, being caught for the table 
more or less during the whole of that time, but are greatly superior in spring, 
when the males are full of milt as the females are of roe.” The British species 
seldom exceed 6 inches in length, and, like the other members of the genus, are 
marked by a broad silvery stripe along each side of the body. On the coasts and 
in the fresh waters of Australia, the sand-smelts are represented by Atherin- 
ichthys, in which the muzzle is longer, and the cleft of the mouth usually shorter. 
The curious Mediterranean and Atlantic fish known as Cuvier’s 
square-tail (Tetragonurus cuvieri), shown on the right side of our 
illustration, is the sole member of a genus characterised by the somewhat elongate 
Square-Tail. 
