MUGIL MULTILINE ATUS.— Smith. 
Pisces. — Plate XXX. Fig. 2 and 2 a. 
M. capite superne dorsoque pallide griseo-purpnreis ; lateribus abdomineque purpureo-albis, lateribus 
lineis duodecim longitudinalibus pallide brunneo-rubris signatis ; corporis squamis in seriebus duo 
decim dispositis ; naribus duplicibus approximatis. 
Colour. — The upper surface of the head and the back intermediate be- 
tween brownish purple-red and lilac-purple, both tinted with oil-green ; sides 
superiorly the same colour only lighter; sides inferiorly and belly pale 
pearly white tinged with yellow, and clouded, like the upper parts of the 
sides, back, and head, with pale tints of violet-purple ; the sides varied with 
twelve longitudinal interrupted pale brownish red lines, the uppermost the 
broadest. Infraorbital spaces strongly tinged with yellow ; fins interme- 
diate between pale bluish purple-red and lilac-purple, all but the first dorsal 
faintly tinted with yellow. 
Form, & c. — Figure moderately slender; dorsal outline nearly straight, 
ventral considerably arched ; an elongated scale external to the base of each 
ventral fin proceeding from the first ray, and a similar one on each side of 
the base of the first dorsal fin. Head long, conical, and behind rather deep ; 
nostrils double on each side, rather close, and the hinder one the largest ; 
upper surface of head slightly convex ; nose narrow and slightly rounded. 
Body with caudal fin measured to its centre rather more than three times 
the length of the head. Scales toward nose small, on the other parts of the 
upper surface of the head large and irregularly shaped ; scales under the 
eyes subquadrangular and disposed in four oblique longitudinal rows ; scales 
behind eyes, and on operculum large and irregularly shaped. Scales of body 
moderately large, and the hinder edge of each arched ; they are arranged in 
fifteen longitudinal rows, about forty-five in the row immediately over the 
pectoral fin. Hinder edge of second dorsal, anal, and caudal fins lunate ; 
pectoral fin superiorly elongated and pointed. Length of specimen described 
12J inches 
1 D. 4 ; 2D.7; P. 16 ; V. } ; A. 9 ; C. 15. 
Inhabits the seas of the eastern and western coasts, also some of the rivers of the interior. 
