THE MULLET FAMILY. 73 



to capture some of these with his landing-net, he was much 

 astonished to find, that one of the males was of a most bril- 

 liant coppery-gold. This colour it retained for some time 

 after capture. Mr. Gale took home with him some of each 

 sex, and he found by close observation that whenever JL 

 female Blue-eye was near, the males became greatly excited 

 and chased each other incessantly; meanwhile exhibiting to 

 a greater or lesser extent the beautiful coppery-gold tint 

 already mentioned. They were found to be quite as pug- 

 nacious as the so-called Fighting-Fishes (Betta pugnax}. 



This sudden exhibition of colour will strike the observer 

 as being of great interest ; as it, most probably, is intimately 

 connected with one of the processes of sexual selection; 

 even though it may be brought about by anger or jealousy 

 on the part of the male.) 



The Blue-eye occurs to my knowledge along the New 

 South Wales coastline, from Bateman's Bay to Clarence 

 PJver and has been recorded from the coast of Queens- 

 land, living in either fresh or brackish water, and, pos- 

 sibly, even salt-water. (Those persons in the neighbour- 

 hood of Sydney, desirous of obtaining specimens for the 

 aquarium may capture them at any time by means of a small 

 landing-net in weedy patches in Cook's River, particularly 

 above the old dam at Canterbury.) 



THE MULLET FAMILY. 



(Family: Mtigilidte.) 



THE Mullets, or, as they are often termed, the ''Grey 

 Mullets," are a very important family. They are distri- 

 buted over the greater part of the world ; inhabiting the 

 fresh-waters and coasts of all tropical and temperate regions. 

 None of them are known to occur in very deep water. They 

 all feed, more or less, upon the organic matter contained in 



