RED .MULI.ET, 



61 



The .Sea -Bream's true home is the Mediteminean 

 and the Atlantic outside it: in England and Ireland, 

 too, it is common. In winter it keeps to deeper water, 

 in spring and during sununer it apprcjaches the coasts 

 and is met with nearer the; surface. Its food consists 

 principally of crustaceans and (ish, Imt also of seaweed. 

 Now and then, when it collects into shoals near the 

 surface, it seems to follow the sardines, and it is some- 

 times caught in tiionsands along with these fish. Most 

 often, however, it is taken on night-lines, and the young, 

 which during summer and in autumn crowd into inlets 



and harhoiirs where the bottom is overgrown with sea- 

 weed, are caught on hooks baited with worms, mussels, 

 small fry or bits of fish. According to Risso" and 

 Valenciennes (1. c.) it sjjawns off Nice from May till 

 July. Couch (1. <■.), however, found young specimens 

 an inch long on the English coast in January. It is 

 nowhei'e'' highly valued as food, I believe, though both 

 DuiiAMEL and IJisso eulogized it in their days; but 

 when it can be had perfectly fresh, it is said to be 

 considcn-ed tolei-abiy good, even in England. 



Fam. MULLlDiE. 



I'xhIiI s()iii('/rli(if clonf/afc (nid sli(/l/tli/ (nnijircssed. External hones of t/ic Iiead nn(irnied or Ihc h'nul corner of the 

 operculum jiroditccd iido (t fat spine. Scales Icuye, slightly denticulated, not continued over the dorsal or anal 

 fns. The tiro dorsal fns quite separate from each other, fairli/ alihe and also resemhlinfj the anal fin, which is 

 situated under the second dorsal. Sij.sfein of the lateral line well developed, hat uithout special cavities in the 

 hones of the head. Simple, ci/lindrical or conical teeth on one of the jaws at least, sometimes on the palate as 

 u-ell. Ventral fins thoracic, with one spinous and five soft rays. Maxillary hone posteriorhj membranous and 

 partly concealed hy the preorhital hone, when the mouth is closed. Chin furnished with harhels. Branchiostegal 



rays at most 4. Branched rays in the caudal fin at most 13. 



Vvwvm' was the fii'st to suggest the formation of 

 a separate family for these fishes, but Bonapartk'' the 

 first to incorporate it in the system. 



The Mullets or Sea Barbels — the former name 

 of Latin derivation and explained by the predominant 

 red colouring of these fishes, which reminds one of the 

 red shoes worn by the highest Roman oftlcials^ the 

 latter from their two barbels, ^vhich give them a re- 

 semblance t(.) the freshwater Barbels — in their struc- 

 ture come ver}' near the preceding family, especially 

 in the sj'stem of the lateral line and the form of the 

 teeth. The former, in its development on the head, 

 closely resembles that of the Sea-Breams. One or two 

 forms of the Mullidee, e. g. of the subgenera Upeneus 

 and MuUoides, have a covering of scales on the top 

 of the head as far as the snout, up to the point to 

 which the upper branches of the intermaxillaries extend 



posteriorly. In others, again, as in tlie true si)ecies 

 of Mullus, the top and sides of the head are naked 

 throughout the snout, and there, as well as on the pre- 

 orhital bone, the preoperculum and the branches of the 

 lower jaw, the skin is pierced by pores, one and all, 

 as a rule, with raised, or at least distinctly marked 

 margin and some of them almost as large as the an- 

 terior nostrils. These pores also reappear fairly densely 

 on the barbels-', the feeling organs of the chin, as Wix- 

 thek" has also pointed out. Sometimes we may see 

 them, especially clearly on the preorbital bones, as holes 

 in the exterior walls of the underljang, branched ca- 

 nals. In the scales of the lateral line itself the canal 

 is generally divided into numerous, finger-like branches. 

 The teeth, the different occurrence of which on a 

 greater or less number of the jaw-bones or palatine 

 bones formed one of Cuvier's characters for the sub- 



Pois 



" Iclith. de Nice, p. 247. 



* Cf. Valenciennes (1. c, VI, p. 101) and Day (1. c, p. 37). 



' Cuv., Val., Hist. Nat. I'oiss., vol. Ill, p. 419. 



'' Sagijio etc., Roma 1832 = Versuch einer methodischen Eintheihtng der Wirbelthiere mit kaltem Blute, Uebers. in Iris 1833 p. 120.5. 



' Others derive this name from the Greek ui?.kog = lip; but the Greeks called the Mullet IQiyXa. 



/ "La surface des barbillons, vue a la loupe, parait toute couverte de petits points sailJants serres et fins'": Cuv., Val., Hist. Nat. 



vol. Ill, p. 430. 



" Zool. Dan., Fiske, p. 6. 



