i8o REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Liicms reticiilatus Bean, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H., IX, 1897, 

 p. 352. — Evermann, Recreation, April, 1902, p. 292. 



Family UMBRID^. 



The Mud Minnows. 



Body oblong, broad anteriorly, compressed behind. Head 

 large, flattened above. Mouth moderate, with bands of villiform' 

 or cardiform teeth on premaxillaries, lower jaw, vomer and pala- 

 tines. Premaxillaries not protractile. Lateral margin of upper 

 jaw formed by broad short maxillaries which are toothless and 

 without distinct supplemental bone. Lower jaw longer. Gill- 

 openings wide, membranes scarcely connected. Gill-rakers little 

 developed. Pseudobranchise hidden, glandular. Branchiostegals 

 6 to 8. Stomach without blind sac. No pyloric coeca. Air- 

 vessel simple. Oviparous, sexes similar. Scales moderate, cy- 

 cloid, covering head and body. Lateral line wanting. Dorsal fin 

 moderate, posterior, in advance of anal. Caudal rounded. Pec- 

 torals inserted low. Ventrals small, close to anal. • 



Small carnivorous fishes, extremely tenacious of life. They 

 live among weeds, or more usually in mud, at the bottom of slug- 

 gish streams or ponds. They differ from the Bsocidce chiefly in 

 the smaller mouth and weaker teeth. Like Aphredoderiis and 

 other associated American fresh-water forms, Umbra must be 

 regarded as an archaic type characteristic of some earlier fish- 

 fauna. A single genus and species in the state. 



Genus Umbra Miiller. 



Umbra pygmaea (De Kay). 



Plate 16. 



Mud Minnow. Mud Fish. 



Head 3^^ ; depth 4; D. 11, 12; A. iii, 6; scales 30 in a lateral 

 series to base of caudal and 3 more on latter; 13 scales between 

 origin of dorsal and that of ventral ; about 25 scales before dor- 



