PISHES OF NEW YORK 377 



is covered from 1 to 2 inches deep and appears like an immense 

 sheet of silver. These little fish are a very important source of 

 food for the cod, salmon and other valuable fishes and are 

 excellent for bait. 



De Kay found the young frequently washed on shore after 

 heavy northerly gales. 



The sand lance appears in Gravesend bay in July, but is more 

 plentiful in winter. The fish buries itself in sand and some- 

 times, when alarmed, will leap 4 inches above the sand. In' 

 captivity it swims continually and soon dies. It will not thrive 

 for want of sand and proper food. 



Group BERYCOIDEl 

 Family MULLIDAK 



Surmullets 



Genus MULLUS Linnaeus 



Villiform teeth in the lower jaw and on the vonier and pala- 

 tines, none in the upper jaw, the bone forming a hook over the 

 maxillary well developed; opercle without spines; interorbital 

 space flat and wide. Otherwise as in U p e n e u s , the head 

 rather shorter. One species known. 



190 Mullus auratus Jordan & Gilbert 

 Red Mullet; Ooatfish 



Mullus barbatus auratus JORDAN & GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 280. 18S2, 

 Pensacola, Florida; Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 981, 1883. 



Mullus auratus JORDAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 39, 1884; BEAN, Bull. Am. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 359, 1897; JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. 

 Nat. Mus. 856, 1896, pi. CXXXII, fig. 360, 1900. 



Body moderately deep and compressed, its width equal to 

 postorbital length of head, its greatest depth nearly equal to 

 length of head and contained three and one half times in total 

 length without caudal; least depth of caudal peduncle equal 

 to postorbital part of head; head two sevenths of total length 

 without caudal; anterior profile rather steep; intermaxilla 

 protractile; mouth small, terminal, the upper jaw one third 

 as long as the head and about equal to length of mandible; eye 

 placed high, interorbital space nearly flat, its width greater 



