326 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
protruded presenting a subconicotublar appearance. When re- 
tracted posterior extremity of maxillary extends slightly beyond 
vertical of anterior rim of eye. Lips thin. Palatines and tongue 
toothless. Opercular apparatus without either spines or serra- 
tures. Scales large. Base of spinous dorsal equals that of rayed 
dorsal. Posterior extremity of soft dorsal rays extending a little 
more backwards than those of anal fin. Second anal spine not 
much developed. Ground color silvery with transverse fascize of 
a darker hue in immature examples. Length 3 inches. Great 
Egg Harbor River and small bays at Beesley’s Point. (Baird.) 
I have no New Jersey examples. It is a small species reaching 
a length of 5 inches and occurs on sandy shores. 
Eucinostomus argenteus Baird and Girard, in Baird, 9th An. 
Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1854, p. 345.—Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 
800. 
Gerres argenteus Bean, Bull. U. S. F. Com., VII, 1887, p. 138. 
Family MULLID. 
The Sur Mullets. 
Body elongate, slightly compressed. Upper profile of head 
more or less parabolic. Mouth small, low, subterminal. Eye 
moderate, placed high. ‘Two long unbranched barbels at throat, 
attached just behind symphysis of lower jaw. ‘Teeth mostly 
small, variously placed. No canines, incisors or molars. Pre- 
maxillaries somewhat protractile. Maxillaries thin, nearly as 
broad at base as at tip, without supplemental bone and partly 
hidden by broad preorbital. Preopercle entire or slightly serrate. 
Opercle unarmed or with a long spine. Pseudobranchiz present. 
Branchiostegals 4. Air-vessel usually present, simple. Pyloric 
coeca about 20. Vertebre 9 + 1423. Stomach siphonal. 
Body covered with large scales, usually slightly ctenoid. Large 
scales on head. Dorsal fins 2, remote from each other, both short, 
first of VI to VIII rather high spines depressible in a groove. 
Anal short, similar to rayed dorsal with I or IT small spines. 
Ventrals thoracic, I, 5. 
Fishes of the tropical seas, one species straying to our coast. 
Many are highly valued as food-fishes. 
