Surmullets, Croakers, etc. 353 



peneus martinicus, equally valued. Many other species are 

 found in tropical America, Polynesia, and the Indies and Japan. 

 Perhaps the most notable are Upeneus vittatus, striped with 

 yellow and with the caudal fin cross-barred and the belly sul- 

 phur-yellow, and Upeneus arge, similar, the belly white. The 

 common red and black-banded "moana" or goatfish of Hawaii 

 is Pseudupeneus multifasciatus . 



No fossil MullidcB are recorded, so far as known to us. 



The Croakers : Sciaenidae. The family of Scianidce (croak- 

 ers, roncadors) is another of the great groups of food-fishes. 

 The species are found on every sandy shore in warm regions 

 and all of them are large enough to have value as food, while 

 many have flesh of superior quality. None are brightly colored, 

 most of the species being nearly plain silvery. 



Special characters are the cavernous structure of the bones 

 of the head, which are full of mucous tracts, the specialization 



FIG. 291. Spotted Weakfish, Cynoscion nebulosus. Virginia. 



(and occasional absence) of the air-bladder, and the presence 

 of never more than two anal spines, one of these being some- 

 times very large. Most of the species are marine, all are car- 

 nivorous ; none inhabit rocky places and none descend to depths 

 in the sea. At the least specialized extreme of the family, 

 the mouth is large with strong canines and the species are 

 slender, swift, and predaceous. 



The weakfish or squeteague (Cynoscion regalis) is a type 

 of a multitude of species, large, swift, voracious, but with ten* 

 der flesh, which is easily torn. The common weakfish, abun- 

 dant on our Atlantic coast, suffers much at the hands of its 



1123 



