MUGIL CONSTANTLY. — Cuv. et Val. 
Pisces. — Plate XXYIII. Fig. 1 and 1 a. 
M. superne purpureo-griseus flavo-viridi tinctus, inferne albus flavo-nebulatus; latere lineis octo novcin 
ve longitudinalibus notato ; squamis subocularibus magnis in seriebus tribus dispositis ; pinna anale 
postice lunata ; naribus duplicibus distitis. 
Mi’gil constanti*, Cuv. et Valen. Hist. Nat. des Poissons, tem. xi. f. 107. 
Colour. — Tlie upper surface of the head, the back, and the sides above 
the lateral line intermediate between lavender-purple and bluish grey ; the 
top of the head and the middle of the back lightly tinted with oil-green ; the 
sides of the head, body, and all the under parts white, clouded with straw- 
yellow, and the parts immediately below and behind the eyes shaded with 
pale violet-purple the centre of each of the scales of the back and sides 
with a slight cloud of brownish red, which gives an appearance of a number 
of horizontal bars on each side of the body between the pectoral fins and the 
base of the caudal. The scales on all parts have a light silvery lustre. 
Dorsal and caudal fins pale reddish purple shaded at their base, between the 
rays, with a darker tint of the same colour ; pectoral, ventral, anal, and 
caudal fins pale reddish purple, clouded or shaded with yellow. 
boRM, &c. — Figure robust, the abdomen generally very prominent; dorsal 
outline slightly arched, ventral very convex ; a scale with an elongated point 
in the axilla of each ventral fin. Three rows of large quadrangular scales 
under each eye ; the scales of operculum very large and the hinder edge of 
each semicircular. Scales of the body large and arranged in fifteen longitu- 
dinal rows, thirty-eight scales in the row immediately over the base of the pec- 
toral fin, the hinder edge of each somewhat three-sided. The scales close to 
the apex of the head very small, those immediately behind them considerably 
larger, the others of the upper surface of the head very large and irregularly 
shaped ; nostrils double on each side, placed at a considerable distance from 
each other, and the hindermost much the largest. Eyes large ; gape rather 
small ; teeth very fine ; nose moderately wide and slightly arched. Head 
one-fifth of the total length of the fish, reckoned to the centre of the hinder 
edge of the caudal fin. Posterior edge of second dorsal, anal, and caudal fins 
lunate, of ventral nearly even ; hinder edge of ventral fin superiorly slightly 
pointed. Caudal fin toward upper and lower edges coated with minute mem- 
branous scales. 
1 D. 4; 2 D. 8; P. 16; Y. A. 8; C. 16. 
Inhabits fresh-water lakes and rivers. 
