62 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



geneva, are rather weak on the jaws, generally cylin- 

 drical and conical only at the ti]) or even obtuse. But 

 in some forms we find in the front of the palate, on 

 the vomer, distinct patches of short but strong molar 

 tcetli, which remind one of the jaw-molars so common 

 in the preceding family. Furthermore, the granulation 

 of the surface of the scales, and the imperfect deve- 

 lopment of tlie teeth at their margin, as well as the 

 large, high preorbital bones, also call to mind the pre- 

 ceding family. There is a considerable difference in 

 tlie pyloric appendages, however, Avhich in most of the 

 MuIlid(S are very numerous and sometimes surrounded 

 by a thick coating of fat". The air-bladder, too, in 

 contrast to that of the preceding family, is so rudi- 

 mentary, in the true Mullets at least, that it is often 

 overlooked *. 



The Mullets ai-e really ground swimmers, ^vhich 

 in an oozy, muddy or loose, sandy bottom root up 

 their food with the snout. Their food consists of 



crustaceans, -worms and moUusks, in search of ^vhich 

 they make use of the sensory organs we have just de- 

 scribed. Alga-', however, also form a part of their diet. 

 It is remarkable that, just as they usually live at the 

 bottom, we find the caudal fin-rays in the Mullets re- 

 duced to the same numbei- as in the Anomalopterous 

 Acanthopterygians, and to some degree justifying the 

 former procedure of uniting'' into one the genera Mulhis 

 and Trigla. The Mullets, however, are migratory fishes, 

 at certain times of the year at least to be met witli 

 nearer the surface, ^vhen they are taken in drift-nets 

 even in the open sea; and their resemblance to the 

 preceding family is too strong for us to remove them 

 far from the group of the Perches in our system. 



The family belongs principally to the tropic seas, 

 but also to the temperate, and includes about 40 

 known species, so slightly different in form that 

 they ma)' ^^'ell ])e incorporated in one, single genus, 

 the Linnean 



Genus MULLUS. 



The European representative of this genus has been 

 accepted by Cuvier as the type of a separate subgenus 

 Mullus, because the teeth on the intermaxillary hones, 

 most of them at least, disappear with age. As we have 

 remarked above, this subgenus is characterized, though 

 n(jt exclusively, by its palatine teeth, which form an 



oblong patch on the anterior part of the vomer, pointed 

 posteriorly and divided into two by a longitudinal 

 groove. The back of the snout is Avithout scales, the 

 opercialum without spines and the air-l)ladder extreme- 

 ly small. 



The subgenus includes only one species, 



THE RED MULLET. 



MULLUS BARBATUS. 



Plate IV, fig. 1. 



Colouring of the hody red, shading on the hack into brown, on the helhj into white irith or irithoat longitudinal, 



yellow streaks. 



R. Ir. 4(.3); L<. 8(7)/i; A. |; P. 2 + 15(14); T'. \- C. X + 

 5 



13(12)+.r; L. lat. 36—40; L. t,:'' — + 1. 



6(5) 



<S'yji. TqlyXa, Aristot.; TqiyXri. ^Elian.; Mullus, Ovm. Cett. ; 

 Mulus, IsiDOR. (vide Artedi). 

 Mullus minor et major, Salvian., Aquat. anim. Hist.. Romse 

 1554, fol. 235, cett. 



" According lo Cuvinu (1. c. p. 452; — ■ after Reynaud?), liowever, Upeneus tmiiopterus from Ceylon has only two pyloric appendages. 



'' Cf. however Costa, F71. Nap., Pesci, Triglia (text) and Plate JX. Also in Upeneus Vlamingii and Up. cinnabarinus (Cuv., 1. c, 

 p]). 454 and 475), whorens the nir-bladdcr is large in Up. tcenioptert(s, Up. flavolinealus. Up. teylonicus and Up. maculatus (Cuv., ]. c, pp. 

 452, 458, 459 and 480). 



' In Artedi for example. 



'' Vertically from the insertion of the ventral fins. 



