164 MUGILID.E. 



appearing like a little knob or button at each corner of the mouth ; as, 

 in fact, represented in the lower left-hand figure of M. auratus in 

 t. 308 of MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes' Histoire. The discovery of this 

 variability of character, not only in the Madeiran fish, but in the Me- 

 diterranean M. auratus, by the reception of MM. Cuvier and Valen- 

 ciennes"* plate subsequent to that of their 11th volume, when this very 

 discrepancy appeared at once between their figure and description, has 

 led to the correction of an error occasioned by a too strict attention to 

 their text. 



These fishes, in their adult state, must, as regards Madeira, be con- 

 sidered very rare comparatively with the rough-lipped sort ; though some- 

 times there occurs a glut of them. In February, 1885, for the period 

 of a fortnight or three weeks, amidst a great profusion daily in the market 

 of this species in its full-sized state, there was scarcely a rough-lipped 

 one to be seen. I have, however, taken it myself, about half-grown, 

 in company with this last-named species, in a sean, upon the beach 

 of the Praya Fermosa, a little to the west of Funchal, in the month 

 of June. The Funchal fishermen speak of it usually as captured in 

 winter with the common kind, and near the shore, in about two fathoms' 

 water : adding, that it is taken always by a net, and never by the lines. 

 But, in other places, only one sort of " Tainha" or Grey Mullet seems 

 to be recognized. And from the following observations, this smooth- 

 lipped kind would seem more exclusively to haunt the northern than 

 the southern coast. 



The shore below the remote village of Porto Moniz, situate near the 

 extreme north-west point of this island, is guarded from the fury of the 

 great Atlantic by an extensive reef of black trachytic rocks of most 

 fantastic shapes and rugged forms ; but for the most part disposed in 

 lines or crests coincident and parallel, or nearly so, with the general out- 

 line of the coast, or range of the breakers rolling majestically on it. 

 Between these successive crests or ridges, over which the sea, under 

 the influence of the prevalent north-east trade-winds, for the greater 

 part of the year, bursts with wild and impetuous grandeur, run inter- 

 mediate deep rifts or channels, of which some are thirty or forty yards 

 wide or more ; abounding in the only sort of Tainha or Grey Mullet 

 with which the fishermen of the neighbouring village profess to be ac- 

 quainted, and of which they affirm, that full-sized individuals are taken 

 off these very rocks, by a hook baited with the flesh of a small kind 

 of crab, called " Jaca," (Grapsus varius, Latr.) in the winter season, 

 whenever the sea is somewhat calm or moderate. At all events, when 

 I was staying some days at this place early in July, for the purpose 

 of examining its fishes and inhaling its pure breezes, whilst feasting 

 eyes and soul upon the grandeur of a view embracing in one wide 



