ACANTHOPTERYGII. 367 



All these places in fact are marshy, and the streams by 

 which they are watered are brackish, and communicate to the 

 fish which they support the odour and the flavour of the mud. 



The Mugil saliens is so called from its faculty of leaping 

 with most extraordinary velocity when it finds itself enclosed 

 in a net. It scarcely weighs a pound. 



The mountain mullet of Dr. Bancroft, of which, by the 

 kindness of that gentleman, we insert a figure, was observed 

 and drawn by him in Jamaica. 



The Mugil albula belongs to North America, and espe- 

 cially to the sea which bathes the shores of Carolina. It 

 ascends into the rivers at each flood tide, during the whole 

 summer. These fish are often abundant enough, according 

 to M. Bosc, to cover the whole surface of the water. The 

 flesh is equally good with that of the common mullet. 



In the family of Gobioides, the genus Blenntus was so 

 named by the Greeks in consequence of the abundant mu- 

 cosity with which these fishes are invested. They do not 

 afford any great interest to navigators, for they are too small, 

 and not sufficiently numerous to be useful to sailors in the way 

 of food. But naturalists search after them with eagerness, in 

 consequence of their habits, or of divers attributes which 

 render them worthy of observation. We know that all venom- 

 ous reptiles, and others which are not venomous, such as the 

 coluber heterodon,\he anguis proper, and the land salamander, 

 are ovoviviparous, that is, that the eggs disclose the young in 

 the interior of the body, and the latter come forth alive and 

 completely formed. This singular property, which seems to 

 unite by an intermediate chain the oviparous to the viviparous 

 animals, is also found in many fish belonging to very different 

 genera, such as the squali and the blennius. One species, 

 the Blennius saliens, approximates to the flying fish in the 

 length of the pectoral fins, which assist it in shooting forth 



