MUG 
MU'GTA, a town of South America, ill the province 
of Popayan : thirty-fix miles from Santa Fe de Antioquia. 
MU'GIENT, adj. [mugiens, Lat.] Bellowing.—That a 
bittern maketh that vmgient noife or bumping, by putting 
its bill into a reed, or by putting the tame in water or 
mud, and after a while retaining the air, but fuddenly 
excluding it again, is not eafily made out. Brown. 
MU'GIL, f. [Lat. a muco, pifcis fuo muco viflitans. 
Arijlotle.] The Mullet; a genus of abdominal fillies, of 
which there are ten fpecies, only one of which is found 
in our feas.—In common conllruftion, mugil is rendered 
a mullet, which, notwithflanding, is a different filh from 
the mugil defcribed by authors. SirT. Brown's Mifccll .— 
It is thought wonderful among the feamen, that mugil , of 
all fiflies the lwifteft, is found in the belly of the bret, of 
all the floweft. Lily's Campajpe. 
Generic charafters—Lips membranaceous, the lower 
one carinate inwards ; it has no teeth vilible to the naked 
eye ; above the angle of the mouth there is a hard callus ; 
gill-membrane with feven curved rays; the covert fmooth, 
and rounded; the body is flelhy, and whitifli; the fcales 
large; the dorfal fins two, and the rays of the firft are 
fpiny. As thefe filh are found in all leas in the four quar¬ 
ters of the globe, it is probable they were known to the 
ancient writers; but it is as difficult to fay how many 
fpecies they were acquainted with as it is to determine 
whether the various kinds defcribed by later writers be 
really diftinft fpecies or not. Rondeletius has four fpe¬ 
cies, Jovius feven, and Salvianus nine. 
i. Mugil cephalus, the common mullet. Black lines 
jn a parallel direction, from head to tail, and 5 rays in 
the firft dorfal fin, form the fpecific cliarafler. There are 
6 rays in the membrane of the gills, 17 in the peftoral 
fins, (i. e. one fpinous and fix loft rays) in the ventrals, 
in the anal, 16 in the tail, and 9 in the fecond dorfal. 
The head is broad at the top, laterally comprefled, and 
covered with fcales. The fcales are large, efpecially on 
the body, and one of the black lines runs along each row 
of them. The mouth is fmall; the jaws of equal length, 
and furniffied with very fmall teeth; Pennant and many 
others deny it to have any teeth; in the middle of the 
lower jaw there is a kind of wedge, which is received into 
a cavity in the upper; the lips are flelhy, the tongue is 
rough, and there are two rough bones in the throat. The 
lip-bones are narrow, and terminate in inverted points; 
thefe were miftaken by Linnaeus and Duhamel for teeth, 
becaufe in general the lip-bones are broad in this place; 
and it is plain that thefe authors could only have exa¬ 
mined a dried fpecimen, becaufe this peculiarity is not 
vifible in a filh recently taken. The cranium ends fer- 
rated, as in the gurnard. This alfo has been miftaken by 
feveral writers: Gronovius defcribes it as a leparate plate; 
Duhamel as a diftinft ferrated bone; but Pliny very ab- 
furdly relates, that the filh, when threatened with dan¬ 
ger, runs its head into the mud, and that this bone ferves 
as an anchor to fecure it. The gills have a wide aperture; 
the membrane is at liberty, and in the inner part of the 
front operculum there is a half-gill. The anus is much 
nearer the tail than the head. The back, which is of a 
dirty green colour, is flightly incurvated ; while the belly 
projects more confiderably, and is of a pure white; the 
fins are blue. 
This fpecies is found in all parts of the world; it has 
been lately found at Tranquebar, where it grows about 
four inches long. It pafi’es occalionally from the fea into 
rivers ; they are feen in fandy Ihoals and bays, into which 
there is an inlet of freffi water; in fuch fituations, they 
are found all round the fliores of Great Britain, where 
they leave the fand marked with round holes, the traces 
of their digging, for they keep conftantly rooting like 
hogs among the mud. When furrounded by a net, the 
whole Ihoal frequently efcapes by leaping over it; one at¬ 
tempting this mode of efcape, and lucceeding, is imme¬ 
diately followed by all the reft. But man will ever be too 
artful for the molt cunning of animals; a net has been 
MUG 167 
invented by the fifliermen of Baufigues, in France, by 
means of which the fillies leap to their deftruflion : over 
the common net is attached another, which is ltretched 
out in the ftiape of a fruit-bafket; in this the filh are lure 
to be caught, if they leap out of the lower one; Duhamel 
has a long defcription of it in his Trait, de Peek- iii. 145. 
In May, June, and July, thefe filh come into the rivers, 
and, like the falmon, they go high up towards their 
fource. At the mouth of the Loire there are two kinds, 
the one much darker in colour than the other; the dark- 
coloured remain always in the fea, the others are what 
come into the rivers. As it is well known that fome filh 
never afeend to the rivers except to propagate their kind, 
it were well worth while to enquire, whether thofe which 
remain in the fea form feparate fpecies, or whether they 
are fuch as are not ripe for propagation, or pall it. Frelh 
water agrees extremely well with the mullet; the frelh- 
water mullet is even preferable, becaufe fatter: it might 
be bred in lakes and ponds with a fandy bottom. The 
mullets are in great plenty in the Mediterranean, and 
along the fouthern coafts of France. In a certain lake 
near Martegues, in the fouth of France, there are vail 
Ihoals which enter there during fpring, the feafon of co¬ 
pulation among thefe fifties ; after impregnation they re¬ 
turn to the fea, but are intercepted by vveres of reeds. 
The food of the mullet is mud, or fea-weed ; it never at¬ 
tempts to devour any filh. Its flelh is palatable, though 
at prefent not a falhionable dilh ; its flavour greatly de¬ 
pends on the ground where it is fed; if among mud, it 
conftantly taftes and fmells of that kind of food. 
Of the milts and roes of the mullet, the famous botargo 
of the Italians, a kind of caviare, is made up. The ma¬ 
terials are taken out entire, and for a few hours covered 
up with fait; afterwards they are preffed between two 
boards, dried in the fun for about a fortnight, when they 
are fit for ufe. 
At Athens, and afterwards at Rome, when an unfor¬ 
tunate gallant was caught in the company of his miftrefs, 
the mullet is faid to have been employed by the enraged 
hulband as an inftrument of a Ihocking punilhment. 
Juvenal and Horace both allude to it in mentioning the 
various modes of revenge which rage aiflated to the in¬ 
jured fpoufe : 
•-Necat hie ferro, fecat ille cruentis 
Verberibus; quofdam maechos et mugilis intrat. Juv. Sat. x. 
2. Mugil albula, the Bahama mullet: no ftripes on the 
body; 4. rays in the firft dorfal fin. In the fecond dorlal 
fin 9 rays, in the pectorals 17, ventrals jt, anal ^, tail 20. 
This has been defcribed and figured by Catelby of the 
natural fize; whence it appears to be about thirteen inches 
by three. It has been faid to refemble the preceding, and 
indeed to be only a variety of it: Bloch fuppofes it to be 
the fame. But the accompanying figure will fliow a fuf- 
ficient fpecific difference : the mouth is abfoiutely with¬ 
out teeth ; the ftrong black lines running through each 
row of fcales is wanting; and the firft dorfal fin has but 
4 fpinous rays. The eye is large and bright; the fcales 
large and Alining. Inhabits the Bahama iflands ; and is 
good food. 
3. Mugil crenabilis, the notch-lipped mullet: 4 flexible 
pointed rays in the firft dorfal fin, rays of the fecond un¬ 
armed ; lips crenate, and lower doubly carinate. In the 
pedloral fins 17 rays, ventrals £, anal \, tail 16, which 
is lunate, with pointed lobes; fecond dorfal, according 
to Cepede, 9 rays. This inhabits the fea of Arabia, com¬ 
monly called the Red Sea, and alfo the great ocean ; a foot 
long; fcales broad, with a longitudinal brown keel in the 
middle; loofe fcales on the top of the head. The lateral 
line is v.ery evident in this fpecies, and a little raifed. The 
upper lip very flexible. The fins in general clouded with 
green, blue, and white; a black fpot at the bale of the 
peflorals. There are three varieties. 
| 3 . M. fcheli, with 16 rays in the pefloral fins, and 14 
in the tail. This is fmailer, and the lips are not crenate. 
y. M, 
