Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/118

104 in ancient times. They frequent the shallows of the shore, especially where the bottom is muddy and weedy; hiding among the marine vegetation, like birds among the bushes, and preying upon small fishes, and the feebler crustacea and mollusca. One species, the commonest of all (Smaris vulgaris, .), abounds so much at Iviça, one of the Balearic Isles, that according to M. de Laroche, it forms more than half of the whole produce of the fisheries of that island. It bears here the name of jarret. Rondelet tells us that after having been salted, the Picarel is exposed to the action of the air, to make a sort of garum, or sauce. It has been supposed that the appellation of Picarel, was derived from picoter, to prick or stimulate, alluding to the pungent taste of the sauce so prepared. But M. Duhamel denies the correctness of this; for, according to the observations of a correspondent of his, from Antibes, the Picarel is here confounded with a small species of the Herring genus, called there pyraie. He asserts that it is this fish, and not the true Picarel, which is made into sauce.

The most beautiful species of the genus is that called by the fishermen of Nice, the Kingfisher of the Sea (Smaris alcedo, .), in allusion to its brilliant tints. This lovely little fish does not commonly exceed seven inches in length. The upper parts are grey with golden reflections; the sides are silvery; the belly tinged with yellowish-green. The head and the gill-covers are marked with blue dashes; the sides are ornamented with four longitudinal lines of spots, of the most radiant ultramarine blue; and on the belly there are six similar rows of a paler tint.