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 Sternoptyx 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 supraoccipital bone behind and at the nape. Con- 

 sequently the genus is not only the type of the family Sternoptychida?, 

 but has been taken as the type of a grouj) which may be considered as 

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

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

 vations of Mr. John A. Eyder, also the Chauliodontid£e; and quite likely 

 some other fishes which have been confounded with the Scopelidse and 

 Stomiatidae may also belong to it. 



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

 themselves as apparently to necessitate a recognition of two sub-families, 

 the Sternoptychinae and Argyropelecinae. 



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

 family 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 tropical as well as 

 temperate waters, although much less so in the latter than in the 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 a« far north as Mas- 

 sachusetts. Messrs. Jordan and Swain have recently investigated the 

 salt-water American species of the family occurring in the temperate as 

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

 continent there are representatives of three distinct genera, Mtigil, 

 Chccnonmgil, and Querimana. 



The genus Mugil 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 

 Mvgil cepJialus and 2Ivgil curema. Mugil cephalns is the designation 

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

 albula, 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 hraziliensis. The Mugil- 

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



