PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 267 



tive except that the anal rays are III, 9, and the scales are much smaller 

 than in the " Queriman" {Mugil liza). These statements are equally 

 true of M. curenia andil/. gaimardiamis. As, however, Dr. Giiuther has 

 received numerous sijecimens from British Guiana, he may have some 

 good reason for retaining Hancock's name for this species, rather than 

 tc regard it as a synonym of curema. 



The name of gUniheri, given to this species by Steindachner, is preoc- 

 cupied in this genus. 



5. Mugil gaimardianus. Bed-eye Mullet ; Liza OjodePerdriz. 



Mugil (jaimardianus, T>¥.SM.A.^K&T, Diet. Class, 1831, tab. 109, (no description); 

 POEY, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist., N. Y., 1875, 64, tab. 7., fig. 1-3 (Cuba); 

 POEY, Enumeratio, 1875, 99. 



Habitat. — Cuba, Florida Keys. 



Head, 4 (5^) ; depth, 3f (4^). D. IV, 1,8; A. Ill, 9. Scales 11-35 

 or 36. Length, 11 inches. 



Body rather robust, moderately compressed. Snout rather narrow 

 and pointed, upper profile almost as oblique as lower. Interorbital space 

 convex, 2^ in head. Upper lip rather thick, about as in M. curema. Space 

 at the chiu between the maudibulary bones, elliptical, acutish in front 

 and behind, scarcely longer than snout. Preorbital rather narrow, cov- 

 ering about half of the maxillary. Eyes hidden anteriorly and poste- 

 riorly by a broad adipose membrane. Teeth rather wide-set, very 

 small, not visible without the aid of a lens. Scales in the adult 

 rather large, evident in the young, about 20 in a line from origin of 

 spinous dorsal to tip of snout ; soft dorsal and anal, densely scaly. Soft 

 dorsal concave on its margin ; the seventh ray shortest, 2^ in second or 

 longest ray. Anal similar to soft dorsal but more concave. Pectoral 

 reaching very nearly to front of spinous dorsal. Caudal forked. 



Color dusky above, with bluish reflections, silvery below, no dusky 

 strenks along sides. Spinous and soft dorsal dusky, the latter finely 



(listiuction between the queriman and trench mullet appears to be in the anal fin and 

 the scales on the back of the head, the anal fin in the queriman having only 11, wliile 

 the trench mullet has constantly 12 rays. The scales on the back of the head of the 

 former are marked with concentric circles, but the trench mnllet shows no trace of 

 this character ; its scales are smaller and quite smooth ; the head is not so angular, 

 is less flattened, of a light color, aud is more delicate in ajipearance, i.e., taking a 

 lull-grown trench mullet and a queriman of the same size for comparison, the scales 

 in the latter are stouter and much more developed. But in these respects you require 

 to compare them together to observe the dilference, and that with somewhat careful 

 attention, being so near alike that many think them the same species, that the mullet 

 is the young of the queriman. The lips are protractile in both. I observe very fine 

 setie in the lips in both species, but less crowded in the mullet than in the queriman. 

 The body of the mullet is more soft and flexible than in the queriman, and its taste is 

 also dift'erent, having a peculiar, delicate flavor, diflerent from that of other fishes. 

 It has a gall-bladder very small and oval ; the queriman has a large, oblong, pointed 

 gall-bladd(>r. In both the liver is situated close to the anterior part of the stomach. 

 The Guiana mullets have '24 dorsal vertebra?; that is, if we include the fan-shaped, 

 bone of the tail." 



