3 66 A M ERIC AN FISHES. 



" Bluefish Mummichog." On various parts of the coast they have special 

 names, which, however, do not appear to refer to special peculiarities. 

 About Cape Hatteras the names " Jumping Mullet" and " Sand Mullet " 

 occur; in Northampton County, Va., "Fat-back," and in Southeastern 

 Florida "Silver Mullet" and "Big-eyed Mullet." The name "Fat- 

 back " is also in use, but whether this name is used for Mullets in general, 

 or simply for those in particularly good condition, I have been unable to 

 learn. In the Gulf of Mexico the Striped Mullet is known simply as the 

 " Mullet"; the other species as the " Silver Mullet." 



There are seventy or more species of Mullets, some of which are 

 found on every stretch of coast line in the world in the temperate and 

 tropical zones. They live in the sea, and in the brackish waters near the 

 mouths of rivers. They, like the menhaden, though indeed to a still 

 greater degree, subsist on the organic substances which are mingled with 

 the mud and sand on the bottom. 



In order to prevent the larger bodies from passing into the stomach, or 

 substances from passing through the gill openings, they have the organs of 

 the pharynx modified into a filtering apparatus. They take in a quantity 

 of sand and mud, and after having worked it for some time between the 

 pharyngeal bones, they eject the roughest and most indigestible portion of 

 it. Each bronchial arch is provided on each side, in its whole length, 

 with a series of closely set gill-rakers, which are laterally bent downward, 

 each series closely fitting into the series of the adjoining arch ; these con- 

 stitute together a sieve, admirably adapted to permit a transit for the 

 water, retaining, at the same time, every other substance in the cavity of 

 the pharynx. The intestinal tract is no less peculiar, and the stomach, 

 like that of the menhaden, resembles the gizzard of a bird. The intestines 

 make a great number of circumvolutions, and are seven feet long in a 

 specimen thirteen inches in length. 



Although Mullets are abundant almost everywhere, it is probable that no 

 stretches of sea-coast in the world are so bountifully supplied with them 

 as those of our own Southern Atlantic and Gulf States, with their broad 

 margin of partially or entirely land-locked brackish water and the numerous 

 estuaries and broad river mouths. The mullet is probably the most 

 generally popular and the most abundant fish of our own whole southern 

 seaboard. Like the menhaden, it utilizes food inaccessible to other fishes, 

 groping in the bottom mud, which it swallows in large quantities. Like 



