228 FISHES OF THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 



MuGiL (HELO.* — The Thick-lipped Grey Mullet, 



Specific Characters. — Upper lip thick and fleshy ; base of the last 

 ray of the first dorsal half-way between the point of the snout and 

 the base of the middle caudal ray ; maxillary visible when the mouth 

 is closed. (See Plate XXVIII.) 



Descriptio7i. — From a specimen fourteen inches and a half in length- 

 Back but little elevated ; ventral line more convex than the dorsal ; 

 greatest depth beneath the first dorsal, about one-fourth of the whole 

 length, excluding caudal ; greatest thickness nearly two- thirds of the 

 depth. Head broad and depressed ; snout short, transversely blunt 

 and rounded, but vertically sharp ; mouth very protractile, transverse, 

 angular ; lower jaw divided in the middle by an ascending angular 

 point, which, when the mouth is closed, passes within the upper 

 jaw. Teeth in the jaws, scarcely perceptible ; on the tongue, vomer, 

 and palatines, more developed ; maxiUary at its lower edge sinuous 

 and entire, visible when the mouth is closed, and not retiring beneath 

 the infra orbital. (In Mr Couch's description of this fish, the poste- 

 rior edge of the superior maxillary bone is said to be minutely notch- 

 ed.) Upper lip thick and fleshy, margined with a number of close 

 set minute pectinations; suborbital plate finely toothed on its lower 

 margin ; eyes rather high up ; the skin at the anterior and posterior 

 margins of the orbit not advancing over any portion of the iride, as 

 it is observed to do in M. cephahis. Nostrils double on each side ; 

 the two orifices placed near together, the anterior one round, the 

 posterior one oblong ; head smooth ; all the upper part covered with 

 large polygonal scales, as well as the cheeks and operculum ; scales 

 of the body large, deciduous ; First dorsal commencing above the 

 middle ; the base of the fourth or last ray, exactly midway between 

 the point of the upper jaw and the base of the middle caudal ray ; 

 the base of the first ray, half-way between the posterior border of 

 the operculum and the third ray of the second dorsal ; second dor- 

 sal remote from the first, commencing in a line over the third ray of 

 the anal, and terminating a little behind the last ray, situated nearer 

 the point of the long caudal rays than to the base of the pectorals ; 

 the last ray exactly midway between the base of the first dorsal ray 

 and the tip of the middle ray of the tail. Ventrals placed half-way 

 between the tip of the jaw and the first ray of the anal, and behind 

 the base of the pectorals; first three rays of the first dorsal com- 

 mencing very close together, the fourth remote, much shorter and 

 smaller than the two first, which are of equal length, longer than the 

 base of the fin ; first two rays of the second dorsal fin spiny, shorter 



" Miujil chelo., Cm-, Jen.. Ynr., CoucIk 



