MUGIL.] PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT. 



M. Capito, Cuv. Reg. An. torn. n. p. 232. M. Cephalus, Don. Brit. 

 Fish. vol. i. pi. 15. Flem. Brit. An. p. 217. Mullet, Will Hist. 

 Pise. p. 274. tab. R. 3.? Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. p. 329. pi. 66. 

 Gray Mullet, Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 200. 



LENGTH. From fifteen to twenty inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Back but little elevated : ventral line more com 

 vex 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, trans- 

 versely blunt and rounded, but vertically sharp : mouth very protractile, 

 transverse, angular ; teeth, in the jaws scarcely perceptible, on the tongue, 

 vomer, and palatines, more developed : maxillary visible when the mouth 

 is closed, and not retiring beneath the infra-orbital : upper lip rather 

 thick and fleshy, margined with a number of close-set minute pectina- 

 tions : eyes rather high up ; the skin at the anterior and posterior mar- 

 gins of the orbit not advancing over any portion of the iride: 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 : scales on the body large, but smaller 

 than the above, deciduous : first dorsal commencing about the middle; 

 its height twice its length; spines strong ; the first two equal and longest: 

 second dorsal considerably behind the first ; its height and length the 

 same as in that fin; all the rays except the first branched: caudal forked- 

 anal rather in advance of the second dorsal, somewhat longer than that 

 fin, but of the same height: pectorals about three-fourths of the length 

 of the head ; second, third, and fourth rays longest ; all the rays except 

 the first branched : ventrals a little behind the pectorals, close together, 

 somewhat shorter ; first ray strongly spinous ; second soft ray longest : 



B. 6; D. 49; A. 3/9; C. 14, and some short; P. 17; V. 1/5. 



(Colours.) Back dusky blue: sides and belly silvery ; the former marked 

 with several parallel longitudinal dark lines. 



Several species of this genus are noticed by Cuvier in his "Regne 

 Animal", confounded by previous authors under the general name of 

 M. Cephalus. That which occurs most abundantly in our own seas, 

 appears to be his M. Capito, to which species he himself refers the 

 Mullet of Willughby and Pennant*. This is not uncommon on many 

 parts of the coast, and is often found in estuaries. Spawns, according 

 to Mr. Couch, about Midsummer. 



50. M. Chelo, Cuv. (Thick-lipped Gray Mullet.) 

 Lips very large and fleshy, the margins ciliated ; teeth 

 penetrating into their substance like so many hairs : 

 maxillary curved, showing itself behind the commissure. 

 Cuv. 



M. Chelo, Cuv. Reg. An. torn. 11. p. 232. Thick-lipped Gray 



Mullet, Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 207. 



LENGTH. Ten inches. COUCH. Probably attains a larger size. 

 DESCRIPT. (Form.) "Head wide, depressed: eyes (in a specimen ten 

 inches long) one inch apart, and three-eighths of an inch from the angle 



* Dr. Hancock appears to have been the first of our own naturalists to remark that the Gray 

 Mullet of the British coasts was not the true Mnqil Cephalus. He named it M. Britannicus. 

 See Lend. Quart. Journ. ofSci. 1830. p. 129, &c. 



