2770 THE BONY FISHES AND GANOIDS 



to twenty-four. The more or less elongate and somewhat compressed body is cov- 

 ered with cycloid or slightly ctenoid scales of moderate size; the cleft of the mouth 

 is small or medium; the teeth are feeble or wanting; the lateral eye is of moderate 

 size, and the gill opening wide. In some species there may be a fatty lid to the eye. 

 The gray mullets (Mugil), of which there is a very large number of species, are 

 distributed over all temperate and tropical coast regions, frequenting brackish-wa- 

 ter estuaries, and in some cases ascending rivers for considerable distances. Feed- 

 ing chiefly upon the animals and organic matter found in sand and mud, these fishes 

 have a special straining apparatus in the pharynx for the purpose of preventing ob- 

 jects of too large size from entering the stomach, or foreign substances getting into 

 the gill chamber. It will be unnecessary to describe the structure of this apparatus 

 here; but it may be mentioned that after triturating a mouthful of sand or mud be- 

 tween the pharyngeal bones, in order to extract such nutriment as it may contain, 

 the gray mullets reject the mineral part of it. Another peculiarity is to be found 

 in the structure of the oesophagus and stomach, the former being lined with long 

 thread-like papillae, while the latter has its second portion furnished with muscular 

 walls like the gizzard of a bird, although it is not divided into two lateral halves. A 

 fossil species of gray mullet has been described from the upper Eocene of Provence, 

 and an extinct genus from the Cretaceous. Our figure represents the common gray 

 mullet (M. capita'), one of several species frequenting the British coasts. Although 

 this mullet only grows to a weight of about four pounds, some of the foreign spe- 

 cies may scale three times as much. This mullet has been kept in a fresh-water 

 pond, where it seemed to thrive better than in the sea. The flesh of all the 

 gray mullets is of good quality, but bears no comparison to that of their red name- 

 sakes. 



GAR PIKE AND FLYING FISH Family SCOMBRESOCID^E 



In this place may be noticed a family in regard to the serial position of which 

 there is some difference of opinion, Dr. Giinther placing' it among the tube-blad- 

 dtered fishes, while Professor Cope considers that its true position is here. The in- 

 clusion of the group among the tube-bladdered fishes utterly spoils the definition of 

 that suborder, since in those members of the present family provided with an air 

 bladder that organ lacks a duct. It is true that the fins of the flying fishes and their 

 allies are less spiny than those of the more typical representatives of the suborder 

 under consideration, but, as we have seen, this characteristic is one of but slight 

 morphological value. Agreeing with the preceding section in the abdominal posi- 

 tion of the pelvic fins, these fishes differ from those yet described, with the excep- 

 tion of certain perches, in the union of the lower pharyngeal bones; while they are 

 further characterized by the absence of a spinal dorsal fin, and the deeply-forked 

 caudal. The single dorsal is situated opposite to the anal fin in the caudal region, 

 the air bladder is generally present, the false gills are hidden and glandular, and the 

 simple stomach merely forms a dilatation of the intestinal tract. Although the ma- 

 jority of the members of this family are marine, some being pelagic, a few have 



