FAMILY XV. MUGILID.E. 185 



Family XV. Mugilidse. 



THE MULLETS. 



Body oblong, more or less compressed, covered with rather large 

 cycloid scales; no lateral line, but the furrows often deepened on the 

 middle of each scale forming lateral streaks; mouth small, the 

 jaws with small teeth or none; premaxillaries protractile; gill rakers 

 long and slender; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; two dorsal fins well 

 separated, the anterior one of 4 stiff spines, the last one of which is 

 much shorter than the others; air bladder large, simple; alimentary 

 canal long; peritoneum usually black; vertebrae 24. 



A large family of fishes inhabiting the coasts of warm seas, a few 

 entering fresh water. 



KEY TO THE GENERA OF MUGILID^. 



a. Stomach muscular, gizzard-like; front of low- 

 er jaw angular Mugil 



aa. Stomach not gizzard-like; front of lower jaw 



not angular. 



b. Teeth small, conical, in villiform bands on 

 jaws, vomer and palatines ; mouth with lateral 

 cleft, not overhung by the blunt tumid snout. 



c. Anal spines 2 Agonostomus 186 



cc. Anal spine single . .Neomugil 187 



bb. Teeth coarse, broad, truncate, incisors with 

 their free edges serrate; smaller teeth on 

 vomer, none on palatines; mouth small, in- 

 ferior; lower jaw forming a sharp soft edge ....... .Joturus 188 



Subfamily Mugllinae. 

 7O. 3Iugil (Artedi) Linnaeus. 



Mugil (Artedi) Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. x, 3161, 758. (Type, Mugil 

 cephalus Linnaeus.) 



Body oblong, somewhat compressed, covered with large scales; 

 head large, convex, scales above and on sides; mouth small, subin- 

 ferior, the lower jaw aiigulate; jaws with one or a few series of short, 

 flexible, ciliform teeth; no teeth on vomer or palatines; eye large, with 

 an adipose eyelid little developed in the young; stomach muscular, 

 like the gizzard of a fowl. 



The species of this group run in large schools along the shores and 

 in brackish lagoons of all warm regions. They feed on organic matter 

 contained in the mud. 



