24 



eel, herring, goby, lumpsucker, stickleback, and lesser 

 grey mullet, began to make their appearance in regular 

 order ; each having their own manner of capturing their 

 prey, and all, with the exception of the young mullet, 

 feeding on Mysis. Even the ungainly-looking and 

 awkwardly-swimming young lumpsuckers are able to 

 capture Mysis. They swim after their prey at, for them, 

 a rapid rate, making sudden dashes as they pass, and 

 usually trying to seize the Mysis by the middle. This 

 is probably done to prevent too much attention being 

 bestowed upon them by their less fortunate companions, 

 which they would otherwise be sure to receive if the prey 

 were captured by the head or tail. It occasionally happens 

 that the young lumpsuckers do capture the Mysis by one 

 end, and before they can swallow it another lumpsucker, 

 usually a smaller one, has seized the free extremity. It 

 is rather an interesting sight to see the stronger one try- 

 ing to shake off the weaker, but so tenaciously do they 

 cling to their victim, that the smaller fish is frequently in 

 danger of disappearing after the Mysis. Only at the last 

 moment does it reluctantly relinquish its hold. 



The last of the young fishes to appear on the shores in 

 the vicinity of Piel, so far as has yet been observed, are 

 the lesser grey mullet. Numbers of these fish were 

 captured in a well-defined gully on the east side of the 

 breakwater joining Foulney Island to the land. They 

 were first noticed about the middle of September, and 

 were then fully an inch in length. The stomachs, on 

 examination, were found to be filled with vegetable food, 

 chiefly Diatoms, Navicula being the prevailing species. 

 Later on, when they had reached the length of one and a 

 half inches, the food was found to consist of a mixture of 

 Diatoms and Copepoda (Tachidius) . 



There appears to be little or no difference in the food 



