630 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1884. 



character as to isolate it from most other fishes. In the typical fishes, 

 generally, the scapular arch is connected with the cranium directly 

 through the intervention of the supra-scapula or post-temporal bones 

 which abut upon the paroccipital bone. In Sternopiyx the scapular 

 arch, however, has no connection whatever with the sides of the cra- 

 nium, but the post-temporal or its homologue advances upwards and 

 meets its fellow of the opposite side and the two abut upon the middle 

 of the cranium or sui)raoccipital bone behind and at the nape. Con- 

 sequently the genus is not only the type of the family Sternoptychidai, 

 but bas been taken as the type of a group which may be considered as 

 of ordinal value and to which the name Iniomi has been given. Tliis 

 order includes not only the SternoptychidfE, but, according to the obser- 

 vations of Mr. John A. Ryder, also the Chauliodontidre; and quite likely 

 some other fishes which. have been confounded with the Scopelidae and 

 Stomiatida^ may also belong to it. 



The Sternoptycliids, it may be added, exhibit such differences among 

 themselves asa]^i)arently to necessitate a recognition of two sub-families, 

 the Sternoptychinse and Argyropelecinae. 



The American Mnllets. — The true mullets or those constituting the 

 ftimily Mugilidte, are fishes which are gregarious, moving together in 

 large schools. They have a peculiarly modified and complex pharyngeal 

 apparatus, by means of which they strain the mud in which they chiefly 

 find their food in the form of the microscopical organisms included 

 therein. The family is abundantly represented in the troi)ical as well as 

 temperate waters, although much less so in tbe latter than in I he former. 

 According to the latest views of ichthyologists, two species ascend on 

 the coasts of Europe to the British waters and even further northwards, 

 and two species likewise reach the American coast as far north as Mas- 

 sachusetts. Messrs. Jordan and Swain have recently investigated the 

 salt-water American species of the family occurring in the t(*mperate as 

 well as tropical waters, and find that in the seas on both sides of the 

 continent there are representatives of three distinct genera, Mufjll, 

 ChcvnomvfjiJ^ and Qucrimana. 



The genus Miifjil contains the largest species, and is the one most 

 generally distributed and represented by numerous species throughout 

 the range covered by the family. Six species of the genus are recog- 

 nized as American, and two of these are very abundant along the 

 southern coast of the United States and form the subjects of a very 

 important fishery. Our two species are now endowed with the names 

 Mugil cqyhalus and Miujil ciirema. Mugil cephalus is the designation 

 which it is proposed to adopt for the species formerly known as Mugil 

 alhula, for it is now declared that the American form is not specifically 

 distinct from the European Mugil cephalus. Mugil curema is the name 

 substituted for the one generally called Mugil braziliensis. The Mugil- 

 cephalus is the species which has the soft dorsal and anal fins almost 



