EDIBLE FISHES OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 33 



Family VI.— MULLID^. 



Brancliiostegals four : pseudobraucliise present. Body rather elongate, 

 slightly compressed. Profile of head more or less parabolic. Eyes lateral, 

 of moderate size. Mouth rather small, with lateral cleft. Two erectile 

 barbels below the chin, belonging to the hyal apparatus, and received 

 between the rami of the mandible and the opercles. Teeth feeble, variously 

 placed. Two short dorsal fins, remote from one another, the first with feeble 

 spines : anal similar to the second dorsal. Scales large, feebly ctenid, 

 rather deciduous. Airbladder, when present, simple. Stomach siphonal. 

 Pyloric appendages few or in moderate numbers. 



Geographical distribution. — Seas between the tropics principally ; some 

 species, however, extending northwards to the Scandinavian and Japanese 

 coasts, and southwards to those of Tasmania. Much more numerous in the 

 eastern than in the western hemisphere. Many of the species enter rivers. 



Genus.- MULLUS. 



Mullus, Linn. Syst. Xat. i. p. 195, 17GG; Cuv. & Yal. Hist. N^at. Poiss. iii. 

 p. 419, 1829. 

 One genus only ; characters and distribution as in the family. 



Si/noj)sis of Australian Suhgenera. 

 Teeth in both jaws, on tlie vomer, and on the palatines {Hypeneoides'). 

 Teeth in both jaws, and on the vomer ; none on the palate {Rypeneichtliys). 

 Teeth in both jaws in several series ; none on the vomer or palate {Mul- 



loides) . 

 Teeth in both jaws in a single series; none on the A-omer or palate {Hype- 



neus). 

 Only one other Subgenus, the true MuIIus, has been differentiated, the 

 members of which are found in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic 

 only. Eleven species belonging to the family are known to occur in 

 Australian waters, but it may confidently be predicted that this number will 

 still further be extended when the riches of our intertropical fauna have 

 been more thoroughly investigated. 



MIJLLUS POEOSUS. 



TTpeneus porosus, Cuv. & Val. Hist. Nat. Poiss. iii. p. 455, 1829 ; Less. Yoy. 



Coquille, Zool. p. 21G; Qnth. Ann. Nat. Hist, (3) 18G7, xx. p. 59; 



Maclcay, Catal. Austr. Fish. i. p. 105. 

 rpeneicUhjs 2)orosus, Gnth. Catal. Fish. i. p. 400;? Casteln. Proc. Zool. Soc. 



Vict. i. 1872, p. G5, and Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, iii. p. 871. 

 Vpeneichthjs vlamingii, Hector, Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. p. 4G5, pi. ix. fig. 5, 



and Ann. Nat. Hist. (4) xix. p. 340. 

 Jli/peneus vlamingii, Ogilby, Catal. N.S. AVales Fish. p. 17. 

 jii/peneus porosus, Ogilby, Catal. N.S. Wales Fish. p. 17, 

 TJpeneoides vlamingii, Sherrin, Handb. N.Z. Fish. p. 81. 



Blue-striped Red Mullet. 

 B. iv. I>. 8. 1/8. A. 2;G. Y. i/5. P. 15-lG. C. 15. L.lat, 28-30. L.tr, 2/G. Coec, 



pyh 17. Yert. 10/14. 

 Length of head 3-40-4-25, of caudal fin 4-25-5-00, height of body 

 3-50-4-33 in the total length. Diameter of eye from 3-50 in immature to S'OO 

 in adult examples in the length of the head,' and similarly from l'40-2-33 in 



c 



