1. MUGIL. 447 



the spinous dorsal, and nearly as high as the tail underneath. Caudal 

 long, forked. The anal is scaly, as high as, and longer than, the fin 

 opposite. 



Greenish, shining silvery ; a blackish spot superiorly in the axil 

 of the pectoral. 



43. Mugil smithii. 



Mugil macrolepis. Smith, HI. Zool. S. Afr. Pise. pi. 28. fig. 2 (not 

 Ritpp. or Bleek.). 



D. 4 I 4-. A. 4. L. lat. 33-34. L. transv. 11-12. 



The height of the body equals the length of the head, and is con- 

 tained four times and two-thirds in the total. The least depth of 

 the tail is not quite one-half of the length of the head. Eye with a 

 very narrow adipose membrane posteriorly. The profile between the 

 spinous dorsal and the snout is nearly straight, obliquely descending ; 

 the interorbital space flattened, its -width 

 being contained twice and a third in the 

 length of the head. Snout broad, obtuse, de- 

 pressed, with the upper lip rather thin ; the 

 angle made by the anterior margins of the 

 mandibulary bones is rather obtuse ; the cleft 

 of the mouth is more than twice as broad as 

 it is deep. The mandibles leave an elongate 

 lanceolate space between them. The extre- 

 mity of the maxillary is conspicuous behind 

 the angle of the mouth ; the praeorbital has a _^ . 



slight notch anteriorly, and the extremity ' ^™^ ^' 



tnmcated and denticulated. Nostrils close together, the posterior 

 being nearer to the anterior than to the orbit. There are twenty 

 scales between the spinous dorsal and the snout. The pectoral is 

 inserted somewhat above the middle of the depth of the body, and 

 has a very short, pointed scale in its axil ; it is shorter than the 

 head, the length of the snout not included, and extends to the ninth 

 scale of the lateral line. The eleventh and the twenty-third scales 

 of the lateral Kne correspond to the origin of the dorsal fins. The 

 posterior dorsal and the anal are scaly, and the anterior third of the 

 latter faUs before the origin of the former ; caudal emarginate. The 

 first dorsal spine stands exactly in the middle between the snout and 

 the base of the caudal fin. 



Elvers and freshwater lakes of the Cape. 



a. Adult: stuifed. From Sir A. Smith's Collection. — Type of the 



species. 

 6. Half-grown. Presented by Sir A. Smith. 



Our description has not been taken from the typical specimen, 

 which has suffered considerably from stuffing. We would take this 

 opportunity of observing, that all the figures of Mugil in the work 

 above quoted have been executed from stuifed specimens, by which 



