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Little Anchovy
Images coming soon.
This small fish reaches a length of but 2 to 2 1/2 inches and is the smallest species of anchovy on our coast. It is found from Cape Cod to Texas and is generally abundant on sandy shores and in river-mouths. It is one of the species entering into the composition of "whitebait."
Head 3 4/5; depth 4; eye 3; D. 14; A. 25 or 26; scales 37. Body rather short and deep, strongly compressed, the belly compressed and slightly serrated; head short, compressed and bluntish; snout very short, not longer than pupil; eye very large; maxillary about reaching edge of opercle; teeth in each jaw; cheek broadly triangular, almost equilateral, smaller than eye; opercle short, oblique; gillrakers rather long; dorsal inserted midway between caudal and middle of eye; anal very long; scales thin, caducous. Colour, translucent whitish, the sides silvery with an ill-defined narrow silvery band scarcely wider than pupil; fins rather yellowish; many dark dots on fins and body.