706 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 

 Family MUGILIDiE. 



Mullets. 



Body oblong, compressed ; covered with large cycloid scales ; no 

 lateral line ; mouth small ; teeth feeble ; premaxillaries protractile ; 

 gill openings wide ; branchiostegals five or six ; pseudobranchise 

 large ; two dorsal fins, the first with four spines ; three anal spines ; 

 ventrals abdominal ; ^caudal forked ; vertebras twenty-four ; feed on 

 mud. 



MUGIL. L. 



M. albula, L. (liiieahis, pluviieri.) Striped Mullet. Spotted Mullet. 



Head large and blunt, scaled ; mouth small ; jaws toothless, 

 but cirrated ; gizzard connected with stomach ; body subterete ; 

 dark bluish above ; sides silvery, with stripes ; a dusky patch at 

 base of pectorals ; scales medium ; eight soft rays in dorsal or 

 anal ; scales, 42 X 1 3. Valued as a food-fish where abundant 

 (South). 



" This species is not as numerous as the following. Specimens 

 have been found in Delaware Bay, near the ocean." 



M. brasiliensis, Ag. [jyetrosits, lineatus.) Liza. White Mullet. Rock 

 Mullet. 



Scales larger ; no stripes ; body compressed ; dorsal and anal 

 partly scaled ; nine soft rays in anal. 



" Never abundant along our coast, although annually appear- 

 ing in August and September, and a few remain through the 

 winter." 



Family ATHERINIDiE. 



Silversides. 



Carnivorous, with feeble teeth and with more than twenty-four 

 vertebrae ; no lateral line ; scales cycloid, not large ; spines flexible ; 

 branchiostegals five or six. 



