Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 855 



the first ray, which equals the fifth dorsal ray. Pectorals short and 

 pointed, reaching beyond origin of dorsal ; ventrals very short. Teeth 

 in broad, velvet-like bauds. (Giinther.) Uniform greenish above, sides 

 golden shining. Caribbean Sea, in deep water; occasionally taken in 

 Cuba. (Named for Rev. Richard Thomas Lowe, British chaplain in 

 Madeira, an accomplished and careful ichthyologist, author of the Fishes 

 of Madeira.) 



l,,>i-ei,* Of N-THEH, Cat., i, 17, 1859, Caribbean Sea. 

 Linemus venmtus, POEY, Memorias, n, 160, 1860, Cuba. 



Family CXVII. MULLID^E. 



(THE SURMULLETS.) 



Body elongate, slightly compressed, covered with large scales which are 

 usually slightly ctenoid ; lateral line continuous, the pores often branched ; 

 large scales on the head ; upper profile of the head more or less parabolic. 

 Mouth small, low, subterminal ; teeth mostly small, variously placed; 

 no canines, incisors, nor molars. Premaxillaries somewhat protractile; 

 maxillaries thin, nearly as broad at base as at tip, without supplemental 

 bone, partly hidden by the broad preorbital. Preopercle entire or 

 slightly serrate ; opercle unarmed, or with a single spine. Eye moderate, 

 placed high ; branchiostegals 4 ; pseudobranchise present ; 2 long 

 uiibranched barbels at the throat, attached just behind the symphysis of 

 the lower jaw. Dorsal fins 2, remote from each other, both short, the 

 first of 6 to 8 rather high spines, which are depressible in a groove; 

 anal short, similar to the soft dorsal, with 1 or 2 small spines ; ventrals 

 thoracic, I, 5. Air bladder usually present, simple. Vertebrae 9 j-14 = 

 23 ; stomach siphonal ; pyloric coica about 20. Species about 40, refera- 

 ble to 5 closely related genera, found in all tropical seas, some species 

 straying northward. Many of the species are highly valued as food, 

 especially the European Mullus barbatus and Mullm surmuletus. The 

 family is a very natural one and not closely related to any other. It 

 bears some superficial likeness to the Scicvnidce and the Cheilodipteridcf, but 

 this may not show real affinity. The singular barbels appear also in 

 the Polymixiidce, but in that family the ventral rays are numerous, as in 

 Berycidcc. The small number (4) of the branchiostegals is found both in 

 Mullidce and Polymixiidce. As the singular hyoid barbels are not likely to 

 have been developed independently in two unrelated groups, we place 

 the Mullidce and Polymixiidcv together. As the latter group seems to have 

 Berycoid affinities, we leave the Mullidcc with the Berycoidei, although 

 they show no resemblance to the Berycoids, other than the characters 

 shared with the Polymixiidce. (Mullidce, Giinther, Cat., I, 397-411, 1859. ) 

 . Teeth on lower jaw, vomer, and palatines; upper jaw toothless; the bone which forms a 



downward hook over maxillary strongly developed; interorbital space flat and wide; 



opercle without spine. MULLUS, 385 



*This species has been recently identified by Giinther with the rare but almost cosmopolitan 

 Pob/mixia nobilis, Lowe. The latter has D. V, 37 or 38, a difference beyond the ordinary range 

 of variation. We therefore retain the American species, Polymixia loinei, as provisionally dis- 

 tinct, although Dr. Giinther claims to have a complete series of connecting forms. 



