PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 269 



Head, 4^ (5i) ; depth, 3|. D. IV, I, 8 ; A. Ill, 9. Scales 12-38. 

 Length, 11;^ iuches. 



Body moderately elongate, its depth about equaling that of M. ceph- 

 alus. Snout rather narrow and pointed, the upper profile not so ob- 

 lique as lower. luterorbital space slightly convex, 2a in head. Upper 

 lip rather thick. Space at the chin between the mandibulary bones 

 oblanceolate, acutish posteriorly. Preorbital rather narrow, nearly 

 covering the maxillary posteriorly. Eyes hidden anteriorly and poste- 

 riorly by a broad adipose membrane. Teeth thick-set, rather small, 

 but distinctly visible to the naked eye. Scales rather small, about 23 

 from origin of dorsal to tip of snout ; soft dorsal and anal densely 

 scaled. Soft dorsal slightly concave ; the seventh and shortest ray 2^ 

 in second or longest ray. Anal similar to soft dorsal. Pectoral falling 

 short of spinous dorsal by a distance equal to one-third its length in 

 adult, sometimes longer in young. Caudal forked. Color dark olive 

 above, with some bluish reflections ; silvery below. No dusky streaks 

 along sides. A rather small dark blotch at base of pectoral.^ Spinous 

 and soft dorsal and pectorals i)ale, with numerous small dark punctu- 

 lations. Caudal pale, yellowish at base ; margin of fin blackish. Anal 

 and ventrals yellowish. 



This species is very widely distributed in tropical America, being 

 very abundant throughout that region, and equally so on both sides of 

 the continent. We find no difference whatever between Atlantic and 

 Pacific specimens. 



This is the species called Mitgil hrasiUensis by all recent writers. It 

 is, however, certainly not the original Mugil hrasiUensis of Agassiz. 



Dr. A. Spaugenberg, curator of the museum at Munich, in which in- 

 stitution the types of Agassiz and Spix are preserved, has kindly given 

 us the following information concerning the types of Mugil brasiUensis. 

 The following is a translation of a i>ortion of Dr. Spaugenberg's letter: 



"The badly preserved dried example (400 millimeters long) seems to 

 me to be certainly the one figured by Spix, but on this one it is entirely 

 impossible to count the number of anal rays, since the fin is dried down. 

 The distance from the end of the pectoral to the beginning of the doisal, 

 after allowirg for the broken tip of the pectoral, is a good third of the 

 length of the pectoral. The number of scales in a longitudinal series is 

 32. Teeth, so far as visible, of moderate size. This original type thus 

 best fits your species 1. { = Mvgil trichodon Poey). 



"Besides this dried example, which best fits the figure in the above 

 named work (Agassiz and Spix), if it does not wholly agree with it, we 

 have in a bottle of spirits two other specimens labelled Mngil hrasiU- 

 ensis Spix, which do not resemble the figure and the dried specimen, and, 

 in fact, each of them is a distinct species, so that, under the same label, 

 weTiave three distinct species. 



"Of these the larger specimen shows the following peculiarities: Anal, 

 III, 9. Scales of the lateral line, 35. Distance of the end of the pectoral 



