19 
LONG-FINNED GREY MULLET. 
golden mullet. 
Mugil auratus, Eisso. Gunthee; Cat. Br. M., vol. iii, p, 442. 
'I'liE last-cited writer says that iu the British Museum there 
are five specimens of this species obtained in England. Risso 
j amiliarly as existing in the Mediterranean, and it 
IS iound m the Canary Islands; but with us it must be scarce, 
as the gorgeous colours ascribed to it by Risso would otherwise 
pi event it from being overlooked; and yet no observer on the 
coast has recognised it. 
fivf dmes“^ ? contained 
ie totTl It ‘1^^- fourths in 
the total length, the length of the head five times; snout broad 
nd depiessed; cleft of the mouth more than twice as broad 
as deep; eyes with the rudiments of an adipose membrane; a 
shoit lanceolate portion of the chin not covered by the 
mandibular bones, (represented as much like that of our Lesser 
Giuy INIullet.) Twenty-five scales between the snout and the 
spinous dorsal. No pointed scale in the a.xil of the pectoral 
fan. Risso says that the first dorsal fin has four rays, the second 
nine, pectorals seventeen, ventrals ten (of which the first is 
spinous,) caudal fin eighteen. On the gill-covers are some 
beautiful golden spots; the back bluish; on the sides seven 
well-marked lines; the belly of a brilliant silver; ventral fin 
reddish, anal 'white, tail li^ht blue# 
