GREY MULLET. 7 



THE Grey Mullet is familiarly known round the coasts of 

 the United Kingdom, although perhaps it exists in greater 

 numbers in the south and west than in the north. It appears 

 indeed to be more widely distributed than others of its genus, 

 for while it is met with in the north of Scotland, Ireland, and 

 Scandinavia, it is more abundant than even with us through the 

 Mediterranean, even to the mouth of the Nile; and southward 

 it is known at the Cape of Good Hope. 



Its choice of residence is in the neighbourhood of the shore, 

 where it is most frequently seen in harbours, especially where 

 the larger rivers empty themselves into the ocean ; and this 

 fish is even known to leave the salt water altogether for an 

 occasional change, although by choice it soon returns to the 

 waters of the sea. From a study of the younger individuals 

 there is reason to conclude that this interchange between the 

 waters of the sea and river is of importance to their health 

 and growth, but as regards the fish of full growth the change 

 may be especially beneficial by affording some supply of 

 favourable food, as it has grown into a proverb that an 

 Arundel Mullet is of particularly delicious quality. When 

 living in a muddy bottom or foul water, as is the case in 

 some parts of the Mediterranean, as food it is said to lose 

 much of its admired flavour. We are told that a gentleman 

 who kept Mullets confined in a pond of fresh water, where 

 no doubt they were sufficiently supplied with food, was per- 

 suaded that by this treatment they were much improved in 

 quality as well as growth ; but how long this exclusive confine- 

 ment was persevered in does not appear. 



From Columella we learn that they were among the fishes 

 preserved in ponds by the ancient Romans, but these we 

 suppose to have contained the water of the. sea. We are left 

 by this author to suppose that these fishes did not suffer by 

 the confinement, and from the number he mentions it seems 

 probable that they even increased in their captivity. This 

 Roman author, whose observations probably were drawn from 

 Mullets thus confined in ponds, applies to them the epithet of 

 sluggish, (iners mugil,} but this can only be appropriate to the 

 deliberate manner in which the structure of their mouth com- 

 pels them to proceed in taking their food; in which it must be 

 allowed they are much more slow than the Bass or Lupus, 



