THE FEELERS OF THE BARBED MULLET 



tasting substances, is a regular characteristic of fishes. 

 These creatures, surrounded by the water, their accus- 

 tomed environment, regularly taste it. Bathed by it, 

 they perceive its various gustatory qualities, qualities 

 bestowed upon it by substances in solution, just as land 

 animals perceive in the air emanations of odours which 

 are mingled with it. 



This more definite characteristic of the mullet is due 

 to the nature of its feelers. These appendages belong 

 to a different category from that of the whiskers of 

 most fish, and consequently I have preferred to call 

 them by the name I have chosen because it better 

 accords with their method of use. Usually the whiskers 

 consist of outgrowths of skin which appear on the lips 

 or neighbouring parts. They are drawn out like cylin- 

 drical or slightly conical rods. They are embedded in 

 fixed bases, and their capacity for movement, which is 

 purely passive, is due to their flexibility. This is not 

 true of the mullet. Here, and this peculiar feature is 

 characteristic of the family, they are formed by two 

 detached rays of the gill-covering membrane which 

 surrounds the gill cavity below. Isolated from it, they 

 become free and independent whilst keeping their 

 articulation with the front part of the lower jaw. Thus 

 jointed, they have a fundamental capacity for movement 

 which the animal does not fail to make use of and, in 

 some measure, they simulate little limbs, capable of 

 movement, of being raised or lowered at the will of the 

 individual. 



These detached rays, an unusual feature, appear when 

 the mullet is still a fry measuring not more than an inch 

 and a half in length. At this period of its existence, 

 when it is scarcely a few months old, the mullet has very 

 little resemblance to what it will be later, when it has 

 grown larger and stronger. Its body is thin and elong- 

 ated, and has no red pigment; its colours, on the con- 

 trary, are blue and white. Instead of staying on the 

 bottom, it swims without resting, forming a part of the 

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