THE MULLET HAWK. 47 



tract of level meadow-land reclaimed from tlie 

 original swamp, just before it passes through a 

 wide gap in the Downs, Bury Hill being on the 

 right, and the ruins of Amberley Castle on the 

 left. A little farther to the south it waters the 

 ancient and picturesque town of Arundel, cele- 

 brated even in old Isaac Walton's time for its 

 gi'ey mullets.* This fish would appear to have 

 peculiar attractions for the osprey, which, indeed, 

 in the adjoining county of Hampshire is called 

 the mullet hawk,*}- a partiality which wdll account 

 for the more frequent occurrence of the bird dur- 

 ing the mullet season than at other times of the 

 year, and in localities where that species of fish 

 more particularly abounds. I have an immature 

 specimen which was shot during the summer of 

 1836, near Amberley Castle, by a man who rented 

 the fishing on that part of the river; he had no- 

 ticed it for several days, and from an observation 

 of its habits, had come to the conclusion that it was. 

 a very formidable rival in his own trade; he said 

 that it had destroyed a great quantity of mullets. 

 About the same time another was killed at 



* "And just so does Sussex boast of several fish: 

 as namely, a Selsey cockle, a Chichester lobster, an 

 Arundel mullet, and an Amberley trout." 



The Complete Angler. 



t YarrelFs "British Birds," vol. i., p. 23. 



