1. MXJGIL. 441 



total length, the length of the head four times and two-thirds. The 

 snout is moderately broad, the width of the interorbital space being 

 nearly one-third of the length of the head. Eye without adipose 

 membrane. The nostrils are close together, much nearer to each 

 other than to the orbit. Lips not thick ; the pra3orbital does not 

 entirely cover the maxiUary. There are thirty scales between the 

 anterior dorsal fin and the snout. The two anterior dorsal spines 

 are one-half the length of the head. The sixteenth scale of the 

 lateral Hne corresponds to the origin of the anterior dorsal fin. 

 Cape Seas. 



a. Adult : stuffed. Cape Seas. Type of the species. Presented by 



Sir A. Smith. 

 b-d. Half-grown : skins. Cape Seas. 



34. Mugil petherici. 

 D. 4 ||-. A. ^. L. lat. 45. L. transv. 14. 



Adipose eyelid not developed ; upper lip rather thin. Extremity 

 of the maxillary visible ; a pointed scale in the axil of the pectoral ; 

 caudal fin deeply forked. 



Nile, at Cairo. 



a. Ten and a half inches long. Collected by Mr. Petherick, H.M. 

 Consui-at Chartum. 



Description of the specimen. — This species is similar to M. capita 

 or M. dubuhra, Cuv. & A^al., from which, however, it may be readily 

 distinguished by the number of the fin-rays and by several other 

 minor characters. The height of the body is contained five times 

 and a third in the total length, the length of the head five times. 

 The snout is broad and depressed, much longer than the eye ; the 

 interorbital space slightly convex, its width being two-fifths of the 

 length of the head. The upper lip has a series of minute cilia. The 

 angle at the symphysis of the mandibles is obtuse, and the cleft of 

 the mouth is twice and a half as broad as it is deep. The prae- 

 orbital has no longitudinal ridge, a shallow anterior notch, the ex- 

 tremity rounded, and the margins serrated. Eyes with the adipose 

 membrane rudimentary, just touching the iris. Nostrils close to- 

 gether ; they are less distant from each other than the posterior is 

 from the eye. The space at the chin, between the mandibles and 

 the interopercula, is rather broad, elongate, cuneiform. There are 

 thirty scales between the snout and the spinous dorsal. The length 

 of the anterior dorsal spine is somewhat more than one-half of the 

 length of the head. The origin of the spinous dorsal is halfway 

 between the snout and the root of the caudal. The twelfth, the 

 fifteenth, and the twenty- seventh scales of the lateral hue correspond 

 to the extremity of the pectoral and to the origins of the two dorsal 

 fins. The soft dorsal and anal are scaly at the base, and the former 

 commences in the vertical from the fourth soft ray of the anal fin. 

 The caudal fin is deeply forked, the length of one of its lobes being 

 somewhat less than one-fifth of the total. The root of the pectoral 



