MASTERS OF THE WATER-BONY FISHES 



203 



Fig. 102. Tidewater silverside. 



side and none of them has a lateral line. All live near shore and may enter 

 brackish water and fresh water. They furnish excellent food and for that 

 reason are also called fescados del rey or "fishes of the king." They are cosmo- 

 politan in warm seas. 



TIDEWATER SILVERSIDE (whitebait) : Menidia beryllina 



Size: Up to 3 inches. 



Distribution: Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico. 



Identification: Same as for the family. 



Habits: This is a typical schooling silverside which is carnivorous, feeding 

 on all kinds of small animal life. It is common in shallow water and enters 

 brackish and fresh water. Spawning occurs in the summer. The eggs have ad- 

 hesive threads by which they are anchored to the bottom and attached to each 

 other. 



Similar Species: One of the West Coast species, the grunion, Leiiresthes 

 tenuis, deserves mention because of its extraordinary breeding habits. It is a 

 small, 6-to-8-inch fish common from San Francisco to Baja California. From 

 March to August, grunion come in to sandy shores to breed. The timing is 

 precise. They ride the crest of a wave to the beaches about fifteen minutes after 

 high tide on the first four nights after the highest tide of the full moon. Between 

 the time the wave has receded and the onrush of the next wave, the female 

 digs tail first into the sand and, with the male curled about her head, deposits 

 her two thousand eggs. Spawning continues for about an hour, different fish 

 coming in and going out with each wave. The eggs remain in the sand until 

 the next high tide wets them exactly two weeks later. Then the eggs hatch, 

 and the young escape into the sea. So striking is this procedure that local 

 chambers of commerce formerly advertised it as a tourist attraction, and it 

 became necessary to protect grunions from April to June by law. 



MULLETS: Family Mugilidae 



Mullets are schooling fishes which are similar to silversides but which have 

 small mouths, no silvery lateral stripe, and are comparatively robust. They are 

 mud-eaters, that is, they take mud in the mouth, strain animal and plant 

 substance from it with a sievelike arrangement in the throat, then spit the 

 remaining material out. They are raised in oriental fishponds for food on a 

 commercial basis. The ama-ama is one particularly well-known mullet of 

 Hawaii much fabled in song and story by the Polynesians. Mullets are cosmo- 

 politan in warm seas. They are an excellent food fish. 



