130 Ctenoid Acanthopteres. FISHES. — Mugiloids. 
Family XV. — MUGILOIDS {Miigilidce). 
Plate 9, fig. 48. 
This family approaches the last in having also a 
greater development of the pharyngeals than other 
fishes. The Mugiloids have cylindrical bodies with 
broad backs and two widely-separated dorsals, of 
which the first is supported by four stiff acute spines 
and no more. The ventrals are situated generally 
on the abdomen. The large scales are extended 
with little diminution of size to the head, as in the 
genus Ophicephalus of the preceding family. The 
small maxillaries are mostly concealed by a thick 
premaxillary lip that presses against the peculiarly- 
serrated preorbitar when the mouth is shut ; man- 
dible shelving, with a small cutaneous tubercle at the 
symphysis that fits into a notch between the pre- 
maxillaries ; teeth when present so slender as to be 
almost invisible, and they pass through the substance 
of the lip. The pharyngeals are so large that they 
nearly fill up the gullet, and allow only soft and thin 
matters to pass. The branchiostegals number four, 
five or six, and the stomach is usually thick, like a 
gizzard, with a muscular ascending branch ; in Nestis, 
however, the stomach is membranous. The pancre- 
atic caeca are few, being mostly two, and not exceed- 
ing four. 
Four genera have been characterized — Mugil; Ccstmus; 
Dajaus , and Nestis. 
The British species are the Grey Mullet or Ramado 
{Mugil capita) ; the Thick-lipped Mullet or Sciorino 
{Mugil chela) ; and the Short Mullet {Mugil curtus). 
Mullets abound in the Mediterranean ; and as they 
are welcome fish at table, they were well known to the 
Greeks and Romans. By the former they were named 
Kestrccus or Muxinas, whence the Latin Mugil is sup- 
posed to have come. Aristotle distinguished several 
kinds of Mullet by the names of Challaries, Chelana, 
Myxon, Kephalos., of which some traces survive in the 
Sicilian appellations of these fish as reported by 
Rafinesque, Calvinu, Cirrinu, Cefalu, and Cefalune. 
They are called also in some parts of Sicily, Malettu, 
Lampune, Lustru, and Ozzane. In Italy their desig- 
nations are still more numerous, one Roman name 
being evidently a combination of two of Aristotle’s 
epithets, viz., Cefalo musina. The Mullets are quiet, 
timid fish, that feed in small sculls ; and as they 
approach closely to steep shores, their habits may 
be studied in the pellucid waters of the Mediterranean 
by a cautious observer. The shadow of a passing 
cloud, however, is sufficient to drive them away into 
deep water. The fishermen feed them with pounded 
macaroni or other farinaceous pastes ; and when they 
have been attracted to a convenient locality, and 
acquired confidence by several days’ undisturbed feed- 
ing, a very small hook enveloped with paste, and 
attached to an exceedingly fine line, is dropped noise- 
lesslj' into the scull. When the bait is swallowed 
dexterity is required to withdraw the hooked fish 
without alarming the others, yet an experienced fisher- 
man possessing a large share of patience is able to 
collect in a day as many as he can carry, and to gain 
a comfortable livelihood. Mullets afford sport to the 
angler during flood-tide, with which they enter rivers 
and rise freely to artificial flies, the gaudier the better. 
If inclosed in a net, they begin as soon as they dis- 
cover the snare to throw themselves over the head- 
line. The ancients supposed that the Mullets were in 
the habit of feeding on the mucus that exuded from 
their own bodies. The species are numerous in the 
rivers and seas of the warmer and temperate regions 
of both hemispheres. The roes of Mullet, compressed 
into cakes and dried, are sold in the Mediterranean 
under the designation of Batargo, 
Family XVI.— TETRAGONURIDS 
( Tetraganuridw). 
This family is founded on a single known species, 
the Courpata {Tetraganurus Cuvieri) of the Mediter- 
ranean, for which Cuvier had much difficulty in finding 
a proper station in his ichthyological system. As it 
has, however, several characters in common with the 
Mugiloids, he has placed it next that family. This 
fish has a lengthened, spindle-shaped body, with an 
obtuse snout. The first dorsal is composed of a series 
of very short spines, each with its proper membrane 
falling back into a dorsal groove ; the more elevated 
and longitudinally abbreviated soft dorsal is opposed 
to an anal of similar extent and form ; the ventrals 
are situated a little behind the pectorals, and the 
caudal, which is separated from the other vertical 
fins, has a lateral keel on each side of its base, giving 
a quadrangular form to a section of the tail, wholly 
due to the distribution of the bundles of muscles. 
The scales of Tetragonurus are arranged obliquely, 
and are grooved with the points of the ridges project- 
ing beyond the free margin, as in the genus Chanas. 
There is no armature on the head, but many muci- 
ferous pores. The peculiarly-shaped mandible is a 
little shorter than the premaxillaries, and the teeth 
standing on both these bones are uniserial, com- , 
pressed, pointed, and recurved. Teeth exist also on 
the chevron of the vomer adjoining the corners of the 
palatines and down the mesial line, in addition to 
which there are card-like patches on the pharyngeals ; 
but the tongue is smooth. The stomach depends 
below the pylorus in form of a long narrow bag, and 
there is a valve in the interior of the lower intes- 
tine and round part of the anal orifice. Numerous 
pyloric caeca enter the ascending branch of the stomach, 
and the adjoining part of the small intestine. There is 
no swim-bladder. Mittenheim examined this some- 
what anomalous fish at Messina, and came to the 
conclusion that the genus does not enter the Mugiloid 
family, nor is it a ganoid, as some have supposed, 
since it has neither the heart proper to that order nor 
a lieterocercal caudal. Further examination of the 
brain is needed, he says, to determine its real affinities. 
Family XVII.— ATHERINIDANS {AtherincedcB). 
This group consists of the genus Aiherina, or Sand 
smelt, and the similar one of Atherinapsis (Girard). The 
