78 ACANTHOPTERYGII. — MULLID^. 



covered by an extension of the common skin. The 

 muscular apparatus is most apparent in the Mul- 

 let, the nervous portion most conspicuous in the 

 Cod. These appendages are to them, I have no 

 doubt, delicate organs of touch, by which all the 

 species provided with them are enabled to ascer- 

 tain, to a certain extent, the qualities of the 

 various substances with which they are brought 

 in contact ; and are analogous in function to the 

 beak, with its distribution of nerves, among cer- 

 tain wading and swimming birds, which probe for 

 food beyond their sight ; and may be considered 

 another instance, among the many beautiful pro- 

 visions of Nature, by which, in the case of fishes 

 feeding at great depths, where light is deficient, 

 compensation is made for consequent imperfect 

 vision. * 



The Striped Surmullet is occasionally taken in 

 great abundance : the eminent zoologist just cited 

 mentions five thousand taken in one night in 

 Weymouth Bay, in August, 1819; and ten thou- 

 sand sent from Yarmouth to the London market 

 in one week, in May 1831. Their presence, how- 

 ever, is precarious ; sometimes they become quite 

 rare, where a day or two before they were abun- 

 dant ; other spots at the same time becoming the 

 favoured scenes of their resort. They are prin- 

 cipally taken with the trawl-net, which drags along 

 the bottom of the sea. 



* Brit. Fishes, i. 34. 



