GEN. MUGIL. TttE SHORT GREY MULLET. 251 



review being gregarious, frequenting harbours and 

 mouths of rivers in the winter in large numbers. 

 He has known two tons' weight taken at one time, 

 and one hundred sometimes left in a pool by the 

 receding of the tide. Like the other species, it has 

 the happy knack of escaping from the net by leap- 

 ing over the head-lines. 



(Sp. 63.) M. curtis. (PL XYII.) The Short 

 Grey Mullet was discovered by Mr. Yarrell, and 

 added to the species of British Mullets between the 

 publication of the first and second edition of his 

 work on Fishes. He caught one individual with 

 the young of the common Grey Mullet and other 

 fry, when fishing with a small but useful net, called 

 the keerdrag, at the mouth of Poole harbour, in 

 Dorsetshire ; procuring but one specimen, and never 

 having seen another. Its size was about two inches, 

 and its colouring was not unlike that of the common 

 Grey Mullet. Its principal distinction, as a species, 

 is the extreme shortness of the body, whence its 

 name. M. Valenciennes has corroborated the accu- 

 racy of Mr. Yarrell's views, by the examination of 

 a specimen sent to the Jar din des Plants from 

 Somme Bay, on the coast of Picardy, by M. Baillon. 

 This eminent Ichthyologist had, like Mr. Yarrell, 

 seen but one individual, but is quite disposed to 

 agree with him in regarding it as distinct ; he natu- 

 rally considers it as very rare in this part of the 

 world. The French example measured eight inches 

 in length. M. Valenciennes' engraving strikingly 

 agrees with that of Mr. Yarrell. 



