FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



305 



and stouter bodied as a rule. A more dependable 

 difference, which will always serve to separate 

 the two (for which neither color nor form can be 

 relied upon) is that the anal fin is much shorter 

 (only 15 or 16 rays) in the waxen silverside than 

 in the common silverside. 



Color. — Pale greenish on the back, silvery below; 

 the sides with a well-defined silvery band bounded 

 above by a dark line; scales on the back with 

 numerous brown dots; fins without markings. 



Size. — Smaller than its relative menidia, the 

 maximum length being about 3 inches. 



General range. — Cape Cod to South Carolina. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Specimens 

 reported by Kendall 54 (1902) from Truro, and 

 from Sandwich in Cape Cod Bay, with one taken 

 in Cohasset, on the southern shore of Massachu- 

 setts Bay in the autumn of 1939, 55 are the only 

 records for this fish within the Gulf of Maine, 

 where it appears only a stray from warmer waters 

 to the west and south. At Woods Hole, where it 

 is abundant, its habits are the same as those of 

 the common silverside, though it spawns some- 

 what later (in June and July). 



THE MULLETS. FAMILY MUGILIDAE 



Mullets have two separate dorsal fins, the first 

 spiny and the second soft-rayed. Their ventral 

 fins are on the abdomen behind the point of in- 

 sertion of the pectorals; their tails are forked and 

 they have large scales. Their closest affinity 

 among Gulf of Maine fishes is with the silversides, 

 which they resemble somewhat in the relative 

 size and locations of the fins; but they differ from 

 the silversides in their short, broad heads, small 

 eyes, and relatively deeper and thicker bodies, 

 while they have only 24 vertebrae instead of 35 or 

 more. Furthermore, they are vegetable amd 

 mud eaters instead of carnivorous, their stomachs 

 are thick walled and gizzard-like, the intestines 

 long, corresponding to their food. The lining of 

 the belly of the mullet is black while that of the 

 silverside is pale. 



There are many species of mullets. Most of 

 them, however, are tropical, and only one has ever 



« Occ. Pap. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 7. No. S. 1908, p. 66, as Menidia 

 beryttina subspecies area Kendall (Kept. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1901) 1902, p. 

 261.) 



" This specimen is in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 



been known to strav within the confines of the 

 Gulf of Maine. 58 



Mullet Mugil cephalm Linnaeus 1758 



Common mullet; Striped mullet; Jumping 

 mullet 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 811. 



Description. — The common mullet, the only 

 one of its numerous tribe (there are more than 100 

 species of mullets) that has been known to stray 

 north of Cape Cod, has a spiny first dorsal and 

 soft second dorsal fin, the two well separated as in 

 the silverside, and its ventrals are located on the 

 abdomen. It is a much larger fish than the silver- 

 side, however, and even very young mullets of the 



»• The so-called red mullet or goat fish (Mullut auratiu) of more southern 

 waters, which is not a true mullet but belongs to a different family (Mullidae), 

 is taken from time to time near Woods Hole, and it has been reported from 

 HaUfu Harbor, Nova Scotia (by Leim, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Scl., vol. 

 17, No. 4. 1930, p. XLVI), hence it may be eipected as a stray in our Gulf, 

 though it has not actually been found there as yet. There is no danger of 

 mistaking it for a mullet, for it is bright crimson, with a fleshy barbel on its 

 chin, and with its ventral flns far forward, below its pectorals. 



Figure 164. — Mullet (Mugil cephalus), Woods Hole. From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



