THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



[THIRD SERIES.] 

 No. 41. MAY 1861. 



XXXVIII. — On the British species of Mugil, or Grey Mullets. 

 By Dr. Albert Gunther. 



The species of Mugil are very numerous, and very similar to 

 one another in general appearance, the genus resembling in 

 this respect some of the Cyprinoids, as Leuciscus, Abramis, and 

 others. They can be distinguished from one another only by 

 close examination ; the greater part of the difficulty of distin- 

 guishing them, however, is owing rather to the incompleteness 

 of the descriptions in our ichthyological works, than to the 

 absence of palpable characters. The latter (such as are here- 

 after indicated) are very constant in each species, but so little 

 conspicuous, that we find very lengthened descriptions, giving 

 minute details of the general appearance of a fish, but omit- 

 ting the very character by which it differs from other species. 

 The discovery of these characters is due to Cuvier and Bona- 

 parte, who have carefully used them for the distinction of the 

 Mediterranean species ; and it is much to be regretted that, in 

 the great ichthyological work of the former, equal attention has 

 not been paid to the distinction and description of many foreign 

 species, which, if the typical specimens are not re-examined and 

 redescribed, are dead letters in science. It is nearly useless to go 

 beyond Cuvier's period in order to recognize species described 

 by ichthyologists ; and when Cuvier, for instance, applies the 

 Linnsean name of M. cephalus to a Mediterranean species which 

 is not found on the more northern coasts of Europe, he has been 

 led rather by his own taste (this species bearing the vernacular 

 name of Cefalo in Southern Europe) than by an appearance of 

 probability that this species was intended by Linne, who cer- 



Ann. ^- Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. vii. 23 



