Q 



HABITS OF MULLET. lAi 



the gi'cy mullet is about fifteen inches, but it sometimes 

 reaches two feet in length. The colour of the back is 

 steel grey, with bluish-yellow reflections. The belly is 

 silvery white, and on the sides there are six or eight 

 lines of a rosy brown. It never goes far away fi'om 

 land, but delights in shallow water. In the summer- 

 time it may be seen prowling about on the muddy bot- 

 toms of rivers and harbom's, with its mouth close to the 

 ground, in search of food. It selects what is soft and 

 fat— is the only fish, which usually takes nothing 

 that has life, although occasionally it may swallow 

 worms. Instead of devouring anything, it sucks it 

 away in fragments ; hence it is very rarely taken with 

 the hook. It ventures to some distance up rivers, re- 

 turnino: with the tide. The mullet is taken in consider- 

 able numbers more especially on the Hampshire, Sussex, 

 and Devonshu-e coasts, and is held in great esteem as a 

 delicacy. The best method of taking them with a bait 

 is by rod and line, baited with a red worm called the 

 rag- worm ; they may be also taken in any number by 

 the artificial fly. As regards the bait for mullet, a 

 gentleman at Margate ^aites me : — 



"I have been to Grove Ferry, and seen Stephen Brown. 

 He again said the slimy stuff which rises more h'eely 

 after drousrht fi'om the bed of the river will stick to the 

 hook, and that there is no other bait equal to it for 

 mullet in the Stour. Mr. Buig, the landlord of the inn, 

 also states the mullet caught in the Stour are generally 

 full of this brown slime." 



Both this and the Thick-Lipped-Mullet (which is gre- 

 garious and smaller than the other) have a remarkable 

 habit of escaping from capture by leaping over the net. 

 Mr. Couch has described very strikingly then- mode of 

 proceeding : " The usual way of taking the mullets is by 



