SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



179 



lateral line. The head is rather short, the mouth small, the jaws weak, the 

 premaxillaries protractile, the teeth small or absent. The gill-arches number 4 

 on each side, the gill-openings are wide, the gill-membranes are free from the 

 isthmus, the gill-rakers are long and slender, and the pseudobranchiae are large. 

 The intestine is long, the peritoneum black, the air-bladder large and simple. 

 The caudal fin is large and usually forked; the other fins are of moderate size; the 

 two dorsal fins are widely separated, the anterior having 4 stiff spines, the pos- 

 terior a single spine and a few soft rays; anal simil'ar to second dorsal, with 2 

 or 3 spines; the ventrals are abdominal and contain 5 rays preceded by a spine. 

 Only a single genus, the type of the family, is known from the east coast of 

 the United States. Dr. T. H. Bean (Catalogue to the Fishes of New York, 1903) 

 cantends that the genus Querimana, which was established by Jordan & Gilbert 

 in 1883 for certain small mullets with only 2 anal spines and no adipose eyelid, 

 represents simply the young of Mugil, and that all the species of Mugil pass 

 through a Querimana stage. 



Genus MUGIL Linnseus. Mullets. 

 In this genus the form is robust, the body only slightly compressed, the 

 back and belly rounded; the head obtuse, broad, and scaly; the mouth terminal, 

 the jaws equal, the lower jaw with a median projecting angle; the jaw teeth 

 short, flexible, and hair-like; the eye large, with a conspicuous fatty lid in the 

 adult covering part of the iris; scales large; anal spines 3 (2 in young). The 

 mullets are the most valuable fishes of the South Atlantic and Gulf States". In 

 North Carolina and Florida, especially, they support exceedingly important 

 fisheries. They go in vast schools along the ocean shores, in bays, and in estu- 

 aries, and feed chiefly on minute animal matter extracted from the mud. Of 

 the 10 or 12 American species, 2 range along our Atlantic coast; these, while 

 quite similar, may be thus distinguished: 



i. Soft dorsal and anal fins scarcely scaly; scales in lateral series about 41 or 42; anal rays iii,8; 

 sides and back marked with distinct dark lengthwise stripes along the rows of scales. 



cephahis. 

 a. Soft dorsal and anal fins very scaly; scales in lateral series about 38 or 39; anal rays iii,9; 

 sides and back not marked with dark stripes (these sometimes evident after death). 



The annual yield of these 2 fishes in North Carolina in the past 25 years has 

 not fallen below 2,500,000 pounds, and in the last year for which statistics are 

 available was more than double that amount. The product during 5 years as 

 determined by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries was as follows: 



