404 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NOETH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



dorsal* and anal fins covered with small scales; pectoral fins mostly 

 naked, inserted high. Coloration blnish above ; the sides silvery, without 

 conspicuous dark stripes, but with shining streaks along the rows of 

 scales ; a dusky blotch at the base of the pectoral ; tips of caudal and 

 soft dorsal blackish. Head 4 ; depth 4. D. I V-I, 8 ; A. Ill, 9 ; scales 

 38-12; vert. 11 + 13. Cape Cod to South America, and Lower Califor- 

 nia; abundant; on our Atlantic coast, usually reaching a smaller size 

 than Mugil alhula. 



(Agassiz Spix. Pise. Brazil, 234: Mugil cnrema anrl Mujil ])etrosus Cuv. & Val. xi, 

 87, 8i>; GUntlier, iii, 431: Mugil lineatas Storer, Hist. Fish. Mass.) 



Family LXVL— ATHP:RmiD^. 



{Tlie Sllversides.) 



Body rather elongate, somewhat compressed, covered with cycloid 

 scales of moderate or small size. No lateral line ; some scales often 

 with rudimentary mucous tubes. Cleft of the mouth moderate. Teeth 

 small, on jaws and sometimes on vomer and palatines, rarely wanting. 

 Premaxillaries protractile or not. Opercular bones without spines or 

 serrature. Gill-openings wide, the gill-membranes not connected, free 

 from the isthmus. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth. Pseudobranchite 

 present. Gill-rakers nsually long and slender. Branchiostegals 5 or 0. 

 Dorsal fins 2, well separated, the first of 3-8 feeble, flexible spines, the 

 second of soft rays. Anal with a weak spine, similar to the soft dorsal, 

 but nsually larger. Ventral fins small, abdominal, not far bade, of 1 

 small spine and 5 soft rays. Pectorals moderate, inserted high. Air- 

 bladder present. No pyloric coeca. Caudal and abdominal vertebrae very 

 numerous. Carnivorous fishes, mostly of small size, living in great 

 schools near the shore in temj^erate and troi)ical seas ; a few species in 

 fresh water ; nearly all the species have a silvery band along the side. 

 Genera about 8 ; species 50. 



CAtherinidce pt. Giinthcr, iii, 391-407.) 



a. Premaxillaries freely protractile (their skin not continuous with that of the fore- 

 head). 

 b. Premaxillary narrow, its edge nearly straight ; teeth on vomer.. Atiikrina, 193. 

 66. Premaxillary broad posteriorly, its edge curved ; no teeth on vomer, 

 c. Teeth none Leuresthes, 197. 



* Dorsal and anal partly naked, pectoral wholly so in specimens from North Caro- 

 lina; dorsal and anal densely scaly, pectoral mostly scaly in siiecimeus from Acapulco^ 

 Mex., otherwise similar. 



