182 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



THE MULLETS. FAMILY MUGILIDiE 



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 insertion of the pectorals; 

 their tails are forked and their scales large. Their closest affinity among the 

 Gulf of Maine fishes is with the silversides, which they somewhat resemble in the 

 relative sizes and locations of the fins; but they differ from them in having short, 

 broad heads, small eyes, relatively deeper and thicker bodies, and only 24 instead 

 of 35 or more vertebra. Furthermore, they are vegetable and mud eaters instead 

 of carnivorous, and, corresponding to their food, their stomachs are thick walled 

 and gizzardlike, their intestines being long. 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 been known to stray within the confines of the Gulf of Maine. 



Fig. 88.— Mullet ( Uvgil cephalua) 



72. Mullet ( Mugil cephalus hixmseus) 



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 ever been known to stray north of 

 Cape Cod, has a spiny first and soft second dorsal fin, the two well separated as 

 in the silverside, and ventrals located on the abdomen, not on the chest. It is a 

 much larger fish than the silverside, however, and even very young mullets of the 

 size of the latter — 4 to 5 inches long — are easily separable from them by the fact 

 that the anal fin is only about half as long in relation to the length of the body, 

 while the second dorsal originates over the origin of the anal instead of well behind 

 it. Furthermore, the head of the mullet is shorter, its nose blunter, its profile 

 quite different (compare fig. 83 with fig. 88), its eye smaller, its body stouter (about 

 one-fourth as deep as long), and it lacks the silvery side stripes so characteristic 

 of the common silverside. We need note further only that there are four spines 

 in the first dorsal, one spine and eight soft rays in the second dorsal, three spines 

 and eight (rarely seven) rays in the anal, that the first dorsal stands behind the 

 tip of the pectorals, and that the tail is deeply forked. The soft dorsal and 



