156 MUGILID.E. 



Salaionetc and Mugel ; and in Portuguese, Salmonete and Tainha, or 

 more rarely in Madeira, Muja. 



The Grey Mullets {Mugiles) of Europe, reduced by Linnseus and 

 other naturalists of the last century to a single species {M. cephalus, L.), 

 were certainly much better understood both by the ancient Greek and 

 Roman writers, and by several ichthyologists of the sixteenth and seven- 

 teenth centuries ; who, following the lead afforded by the common names 

 and popular distinctions of the fisherman, have arrived at more correct 

 conclusions than their successors ; though they failed in placing them on 

 record, or establishing the species, with the precision of close modern 

 definition, or with a systematic accuracy of comparative detail. The 

 researches of the last ten or fifteen years, supplying these defects, have 

 also ascertained again the species to be very numerous ; those of different 

 countries possessing under a strong general resemblance in habits, form, 

 and colouring, minute but permanent and easily appreciable marks of 

 difference. 



Thus Aristotle, with some variation, and indeed confusion in their 

 specific titles,* records the existence of three or four sorts at least of 



* E.ff. In lib. E. cap. ^. sect. 6. (edit. Schneid.), after mentioning the xiffT^iu; proper by 

 itself, he enumerates these four as kinds of xnrr^ihs {ruv xnrr^iav or xicrr^cciav) : viz. the ^ikaiy 

 (some read ;);;aAAa;»: Athenaeus, vii. 77, Dindorf, 2. p. 667, quoting the passage, x^^^*'') '■> — the 

 ffa^yo; (some have tra^yo; or trti^'yuv) ; — the f^v^uv (some read most erroneously //.v^av or afji.v\oiv. 

 Athena3us, loc. cit. iJi.v\oi) ; — and the ki^oXos. In another place (0. §. 2) he speaks again, besides 

 the xiirr^ihs, of two kinds of Ki^aXo; ; and says, that one of these, w^hich some call x,''^^^') 

 lives near the shore {-Tr^offyuos) ; but that there is another sort, living remote from the shore 

 (Ts^a'iu;), which feeds alone on its own slime {fAiS,a.) ; so that it is always with an empty sto- 

 mach as from fasting (§/o »ai whttU iirriv an). Hence Cuvier, after Rondelet, conjectures with 

 much plausibility that this is the sort which Aristotle elsewhere calls the fiv^cov -. whilst it is also 

 very likely Dorion's vmri; (Athen. vii. 77). In Z. //3. 1, the Kitrr^ih; and Ki(paXi>; alone are 

 mentioned together: and in Z. tr. 1 and 2, the x^XcHv and /ji.v?,tav first together (;^£X<i<va Taiv 

 xta-r^iaiv ko.) fjiv^uva) ; and then presently the Ki(pukos and xso-Tgsuj separately. It is observable, 

 that these two latter passages, taken together, make up four out of the five sorts mentioned in 

 the passage first above referred to (E. 6. 6). And since, moreever, the insertion of the ffd^yo; in 

 this list, which has so much puzzled editors and commentators, rests only on this single passage, 

 it may well be either a mere lapsus, or no more intended for a formal recognition of the (rd^yo; 

 as a genuine kind of Kiffrpius, than tiie similar citation of the ah^lvtj with the K%<pa,Xoi as of the tribe 

 in a single passage (z. tr. 2) seems to be. Indeed, such occasional associations of very different 

 fishes, founded on some passing conventional character of agreement, or on some point of slight 

 or general relation (such as mode of capture (E. ^. 1), colour, quality, or certain habits) are 

 not unfrequent in our author : of which the following is a fair example ; being also one in point 

 as to the present fishes : ^'aoroxoZiri Tt Tavn; ol XiTiharo'i, olov Xa/5ja|, xiiTT^ivs, x'iipaXo;, inXi;, 

 xai ol Xtuxoi xtt.Xovf/.itot ^ravTSj, xa'i oi Xiiei, -ptXyiv iy^iXvo;'''' (Z. //3. 1). That the idea of asso- 

 ciation in the present case was more particularly colour, might perhaps be argued fi'om the word 

 XiuKo) in this passage, taken in connection with tlie generic name of Xivxiirxos, under which 

 Hicesius, in Athenajus, enumerates the Grey Mullets. At all events, the ad^yo; is abundantly 

 distinguished from the xiffr^iis in tlie following passage : " Id^yo; xuia-xtTui /Av tei^i tov lioiru- 

 oiaiva (ti^va, xvu Se rifii^a; T^'iaxoiTO,' xa) ov xaXovri ol Tims X'^^""* ''■'*''' xiffT^iuv ( xiO'T^ctitiiv, Schn.), 

 xai iJLv\iaitt., '-»► auT?iv lopav xvovai tcu ta.pytu.'''' Arist. Z, *r, 1. 



