706 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 

 Family MUGILIDiE. 



Mnllets. 



Body oblong, compressed; covered with large cycloid scales; no 

 lateral line; mouth small; teeth feeble; premaxillaries protractile; 

 gill openings wide; branchiostegals five or six; pseudobranchise 

 large ; two dorsal fins, the first with four spines ; three anal spines ; 

 ventrals abdominal ; caudal forked ; vertebrse twenty-four ; feed on 

 mud. 



MUGIL. L. 

 M. albu^a, L. [Hneatus, plumieri.) Striped Mullet. Spotted Mullet. 



Head large and blunt, scaled ; mouth small ; jaws toothless, 

 but cirrated ; gizzard connected with stomach ; body subterete ; 

 dark bluish above ; sides silvery, with stripes ; a dusky patch at 

 base of pectorals ; scales medium ; eight soft rays in dorsal or 

 anal ; scales, 42 X 1 3. Valued as a food-fish where abundant 

 (South). 



" This species is not as numerous as the following. Specimens 

 have been found in Delaware Bay, near the ocean." 



M. brasiliensis, Ag. [petroaus, Hneatus.) Liza. White Mullet. Rock 

 Mullet. 



Scales larger ; no stripes ; body compressed ; dorsal and anal 

 partly scaled ; nine soft rays in anal. 



" Never abundant along our coast, although annually appear- 

 ing in August and September, and a few remain through the 

 winter." 



Family ATHERINIDiE. 



Silversides. 



Carnivorous, with feeble teeth and with more than twenty-four 

 vertebrae; no lateral line; scales cycloid, not large; spines flexible; 

 branchiostegals five or six. 



