Still another species, _Ch. jordani_, is found about the city of Mexico, where it is sold baked in corn-husks. Along the coasts of Peru, Chile, and Argentina is found still another assemblage of fishes of the king, with very small scales, constituting the genera _Basilichthys_ and _Gastropterus_ (_Pisciregia_). _Basilichthys microlepidotus_ is the common Pesca del Rey of Chile. The small silversides, or "brit," of our Atlantic coast belong to numerous species of _Menidia_, _Menidia notata_ to the northward and _Menidia menidia_ to the southward being most abundant. _Kirtlandia laciniata_, with ragged scales, is common along the Virginia coast, and _K. vagrans_ farther south. Another small species, very slender and very graceful, is the brook silverside _Labidesthes sicculus_, which swarms in clear streams from Lake Ontario to Texas. This species, three to four inches long, has the snout produced and a very bright silvery stripe along the side. Large and small species of silversides occur in the sea along the California coast, where they are known familiarly as "blue smelt" or "Peixe Re." The most important of these and the largest member of the family, reaching a length of eighteen inches, is _Atherinopsis californiensis_, an important food-fish throughout California, everywhere wrongly known as smelt. _Atherinops affinis_ is much like it, but has Y-shaped teeth. _Iso flos-maris_, called Nami-no-hana, or flower of the surf, is a shining little fish with belly shape like that of a herring. It lives in the surf on the coast of Japan. _Melanotænia nigrans_ of Australia (family _Melanotæniidæ_) has the lateral band jet-black, as has also _Melaniris balsanus_ of the rivers of southern Mexico. _Atherinosoma vorax_ of Australia has strong teeth like those of a barracuda. [Illustration: FIG. 172.—Blue Smelt or Pez del Rey, _Atherinopsis californiensis_ Girard. San Diego. ] [Illustration: FIG. 173.—Flower of the waves, _Iso flos-maxis_, Jordan & Starks. Enoshima, Japan. ] Fossil species of _Atherina_ occur in the Italian Eocene, the best known being _Atherina macrocephala_. Another species, _Rhamphognathus paralepoides_, allied to _Menidia_, occurs in the Eocene of Monte Bolca. =The Mullets: Mugilidæ.=—The mullets (_Mugilidæ_) are more clumsy in form than the silversides, robust, with broad heads and stouter fin-spines. The ventral fins are abdominal but well forward, the pelvis barely touching the clavicle, a condition to be defined as "subabdominal." The small mouth is armed with very feeble teeth, often reduced to mere fringes. The stomach is muscular like the gizzard of a fowl and the species feed largely on the vegetation contained in mud. There are numerous species, mostly living in shallow bays and estuaries, but some of them are confined to fresh waters. All are valued as food and some of them under favorable conditions are especially excellent.