354 Mr. Thompson on Fishes new to Ireland. 



Until the 22nd of September mullet were brought to market, 

 and on this occasion in large quantity. The best fish of 1837 

 was about 10 lbs. weight. During these three years the 

 largest captures were all made about Garmoyle, a deep por- 

 tion of the bay, about three miles from town. This fish is 

 sought for only with nets. An acquaintance out eel-spearing 

 in the bay once struck and secured with his spear a mullet of 

 5 lbs. weight, as it was swimming on the surface of the water. 



With reference to European mullets generally, it is re- 

 marked in the Hist, des Pois. of Cuv. and Val. : " Les anciens, 

 qui donnaient a tout une couleur poetique, ont en consequence 

 fait du muge le plus innocent, le plus juste des poissons ; tout 

 au plus mangerait-il ceux qu'il trouverait morts," t. xi. p. 77« 

 Mr. Couch, apparently from his own observation, says of the 

 M. Capito, " it is indeed the only fish of which I am able to 

 express my belief that it usually selects for food nothing that 

 has life." Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 204. With the M. Chelo 

 it is however far otherwise, as the contents of the stomachs I 

 have examined at various seasons, presented, from the minute 

 size of the objects, many hundred-fold greater destruction of 

 animal life than I have ever witnessed on a similar inspection 

 of the food of any bird or fish. From a single stomach I have 

 obtained what would fill a large-sized breakfast cup of the fol- 

 lowing species of bivalve and univalve mollusca (which had 

 been taken alive) — Mytilus edulis, Modiola Papuana (of these 

 very small individuals), Kellia rubra, Skenea depressa, Litto- 

 rina retusa, Rissoa labiosa and R. parva, Serpulce and Mi- 

 lioke. Of these mollusca, specimens of Rissoa labiosa, three 

 lines in length, were the largest, and the Kellia rubra, from the 

 smallest size to its maximum of little more than a line dia- 

 meter, the most abundant. In the profusion of specimens it 

 affords, the stomach of one of these mullets is quite a store- 

 house to a conchologist. In addition to these were various 

 species of minute Crustacea. The only inanimate matter that 

 appeared, were fragments of Zostera marina and Conferva, 

 which were probably taken into the stomach on account of 

 the adhering mollusca. To this nutritious food may perhaps 

 be attributed the great size this fish attains in Belfast Bay. 



In the ' Regne AnimaP (t. ii. p. 232, 2nd ed.) Pennant's 



