and the Grey Mullet of the British Coast, 131 



grinding down the hard seeds on which they feed* ; but it is 

 difficult to conceive how any triturating power should be re- 

 quired for the substances which form the nutriment of these 

 fishes. I think it is asserted by Spallanzani that he could 

 never detect anything indicative of a triturating power in the 

 stomach of fishes. It is doubtless a striking anomaly ; yet it 

 seems that a species of treat, the gallaro, is also provided 

 with it. 



Having had opportunities, since the foregoing notices 

 were written f, of examining the interior structure of the 

 grey mullet, the following is the result of my observations. 

 The stomach is similar in shape and structure to that of the que- 

 riman, but more rounded ; that of the M. cephalus, however, as 

 figured in the Anatomic Comparee, is very different in shape, 

 being long and slender — a mere continuation, as it were, of the 

 oesophagus — running straight down, and terminating in an 

 acute cul de sac ; its form being that of the stomach of the 

 herring, to which M. Cuvier compares it (and is confounded, 

 as he observes, with the oesophagus) ; having a round globular 

 body attached to its middle, or at the pylorus, on which stand 

 several slender radiated appendages, or caeca. 



The stomach of the mugil albula is of similar shape with the 

 cephalus, but rounded at the lower end, or cul de sac, and has 

 no radii attached to the muscular ball. It is only necessary to 

 compare the different forms of the stomach of the grey mullet 

 and that of the M. cephalus, as given in the Anat. Comp., tom. 

 v.^ p. 353, pi. 43, in order to show a specific difference which 

 is more remarkable than in any of the external characters ; dis- 

 tinguishing it most clearly from the M. cephalus. 



* I observed the gizzard of a fowl filled with gravel, but not a grain in the 

 whole course of the canal, either above or below. What becomes of the gravel 

 swallowed by gallinaceous birds ? — We never observe it in the faeces : some think 

 it is digested, or worn down to a powder ; but whoever examines the gravel will 

 see this is not the case, as there are no signs of detritus, the pebbles, or gravel- 

 stones, retaining their corners and sharji edges. 



i" The substance of this paper was wrote in July, 1828, and left at the Museum, 

 with Mr. Vigors, the learned secretary of the Zoological Society. Since this 

 period, I have seen many other specimens of the same fish ; and I have met vrith 

 no other species in London. Possibly, the M. cephalus (that from which the 

 botargo is prepared in the Levant) may inhabit some parts of the British coast, 

 but it is not probable, for, in that case, tne rapid system of boating, and inland car- 

 riage, would bring some of them to the London markets. 



K 2 



