4 
PLATE XV, 
We are persuaded the distinctions between M ugil Cephalus and 
Mugil Albula, as stated in the S'y sterna Nature, are by no means 
sufficient to prove them different. It is said, that Cephalus has five 
rays in the first dorsal fin, and inhabits Europe. Albula differs in 
having only four rays ip the dorsal fin, and inhabits America ; and 
yet Gmelin refers amongst the synonyms of Mugil Cephalus to 
Gronovius , who describes but four rays in that part of his fish : — the 
only character Gmelin assigns to his second species, Albula. 
A slight attention to the accounts of authors on Ichthyology will 
convince us that the number of rays in the fins of fishes are often in- 
constant. Gmelin acknowledges that M. Cephalus, having five rays 
in the dorsal fin, is an European kind ; and the observations of Pen- 
nant, Block, and others, prove, that, with only four rays in the 
dorsal fin, is an European species also. The existence of Albula 
rests on the authority of Catesby and Brown ; the first describing it as 
a native of Carolina, and the other of Jamaica. Whether it differs 
specifically from Cephalus may be doubted, but the character given 
of it does not remove it from the foregoing species. Block says, 
Mugil Cephalus is found in every part of tine world, and adduces the 
evidence of Brown as a proof that it is found in Jamaica, so that he 
considers them both as the same species. 
Linnaeus describes but Qne European Mugil, and he could cer- 
tainly have meant no other by his Cephalus than our species. In 
the synonyms quoted in the early editions of the Systema Nature?, 
the number of these rays in question are stated both at four and five. 
And we think they must be both the same species, accidentally differ* 
ing in the specimens examined by different authors. 
