ACANTIIOPTERYGIANS. 147 



pectoral being surmounted by a long and carinated crest. The 

 nasal openings are separated from each other, and the teeth are 

 tolerably prominent. It is the largest and best of the Mediter- 

 ranean species. We have not seen it on the Atlantic coast of 

 Europe, but its characters are visible in several species of India 

 and of America*. Another species, nearly as large, and common to 

 the Mediterranean and the ocean, is the 



M. capito, Cuv. ; the Ramado of Nice. It has the maxillary 

 visible behind the commissure of the jaws even when the mouth is 

 closed; much weaker teeth; nasal orifices approximated; the skin 

 of the edges of the orbit not extending to the globe of the eye ; the 

 sur-pectoral scale short and obtuse ; a black spot at the base of the 

 latter finf. 



Two smaller species, M. avratus, and M. saltator, (the M. dore, 

 and M. sauteur, of Risso), approach the capito; the maxillary of 

 the first is hidden under the sub-orbital as in the cephalus, but the 

 nasal orifices are approximated as in the capito ; the other, with the 

 characters of the capito, has an emarginated sub-orbital which allows 

 the end of the jaw to be seen J. A third large species, also common 

 to both seas, is the 



M. chelo, Cuv. (The Great-lipped Mullet). Particularly dis- 

 tinguished by its extremely bulky fleshy lips, whose edges are 

 ciliated, and by teeth which dip into their substance like so many 

 hairs; the maxillary is recurved, and shows itself behind the com- 

 missure. 



M. labeo, Cuv., a small Mediterranean species, has, in proportion 

 to its size, still larger lips, with crenated borders. Several of these 

 thick-lipped species are found in the Indian Ocean §. The 



. Tetragonurus, Risso, 



So called from the two salient crests that are found on each side near the 

 base of the caudal, form another of these insulated genera, which seem to 

 be representatives of particular families. These fishes are partly allied 

 to the Mullets, and partly to the Scomberoides. Their body is elongated; 

 their spinous dorsal long, but very low, the soft one approximated to it, 



* America produces five or six species badly characterized and confounded by 

 Linn., under the name of M. albula. Among the number is the M. Plutnie.ri, BL, 

 become a Sphyrcena'm BL Schn. p. 110, and the M. lineatus, Mitch. i-The true cepha- 

 lus of the Mediterranean is found on the whole African coast. Add, of species from 

 India, the Bontah, Russel, II, 180, or the M. our, of Forsk., perhaps the same as our 

 cephalus; — the Kunnesee, Id. 181; — M. ccrsula, Buch. pi. ix, 97. 



f This appears to us to be the species particularly described by Willoughby, and 

 figured by Pennant. 



X Add, the M. christian, Voy. Freycin. ; — M. Ferrandi, lb.; — M. parsia, Buch. pi. 

 xvii, f. 71; — M. carcasia, Id.; — 31. peradak, Cuv., Russ. 182. 



§ M. crenilabis, Forsk.; — M. cirrhosthomus, Forst. App. BL Schn. 121. 



N.B. The M. coeruleo-maculatus, Lacep. V, 389, the same represented under the 

 name of crenilabis, pi. xiii, f. 1, belongs to the same group as the capito. The Mu- 

 gil appcndiculatus, Bosc, or Mugilomore Anne-Caroline, Lacep. V, 398, is nothing else 

 than the elops, which is also the fact as respects the Mugil salmoneus, Forst., BL Schn. 

 121; — Mugil cinereus, Walbaum, Catesb. II, xi, 2, is a Gerres; — the M. chanos, 

 Forsk., belongs to the Cyprinidae. 



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