925 



MULGEDIUM. 



MUR^ENID-E. 



926 



" Several experiments on the productive powers of various hybrid 

 birds are now in progress ; but without intending to anticipate the 

 interesting particulars which may be elicited, I may briefly refer to 

 what has fallen under my own observation. Some degree of restriction, 

 either accidental or imposed, and arising from various causes, appears 

 to be necessary to induce the union of birds that are of different 

 species ; but the influence of the divine command to ' increase aud 

 multiply ' is so irresistible, that some birds unite with strange partners 

 rather than have no partner at all. When putting two birds of dif- 

 ferent species together, with the intention of breeding from them, 

 union is less likely to take place if they are kept within sight or 

 hearing of other birds of their own species. The two sexes of the 

 broods produced by such unions take little or no notice of each other 

 when adult even during the usual breeding season, and are believed 

 to be unproductive among themselves if so restricted ; but if allowed 

 an opportunity of uniting with the true species of either parent they 

 are then prolific, and the young birds produced soon lose all inter- 

 mediate character." (' Hist. Brit. Birds,' part xiii.) 



Mr. Darwin, in his highly interesting ' Journal and Remarks,' being 

 the third volume of the ' Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of H.M. 

 ships Adventure and Beagle,' gives the following graphic account of 

 the social habits of the Mule when describing the passage of the 

 Cordillera : 



" Our manner of travelling was delightfully independent. In the 

 inhabited parts we bought a little firewood, hired pasture for the 

 animalx, and bivouacked in the same field with them. Carrying an 

 iron pot, we cooked and ate our supper under the cloudless sky, and 

 knew no trouble. My companions were Mariano Qonzales, who had 

 formerly accompanied me, and an arriero, with his ten mules and a 

 madrina. 



" The madrina (or godmother) is a most important personage. She 

 is an old steady mare, with a little bell round her neck ; and where- 

 soever she goes the mules, like good children, follow her. If several 

 large troops are turned into one field to graze, in the morning the 

 muleteer has only to lead the madrinas a little apart and tinkle their 

 bells; and although there may be two or three hundred mules toge- 

 ther each immediately knows its own bell, and separates itself from 

 the rest. The affection of these animals for their madrinas saves 

 infinite trouble. It in nearly impossible to lose an old mule ; for if 

 detained for several hours by force, she will, by the power of smell, 

 like a dog, track out her companions, or rather the madrina; for, 

 according to the muleteer, she is the chief object of affection. The 

 feeling however is not of an individual nature ; for I believe I am 

 right in saying that any animal with a bell will serve as a madrina. 

 In a troop each animal carries, on a level road, a cargo weighing four 

 hundred and sixteen pounds (more than twenty-nine stone) ; but in a 

 mountainous country a hundred pounds less. Yet with what delicate 

 slim limbs, without any proportional bulk of muscle, these animals 

 support so great a burden ! The mule always appears to me a most 

 surprising animal. That a hybrid should possess more reason, memory, 

 obstinacy, social affection, and powers of muscular endurance, than 

 either of its parents, seems to indicate that art has here out-mastered 

 nature." 



MULQE'DIUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Componta, the sub-order Liguliflone, the tribe Cichoracece, and sub- 

 tribe Hieracia. It has many-flowered heads, a double involucre, the 

 inner of one row, the outer of short lax imbricated scales ; the fruit 

 compressed, constricted above, and terminating in a ciliated disc ; the 

 outer rows of the pappus rigid and brittle. There are several species 

 of this genus. 



M. alpinum, has glabrous, lyrate at the base, arrow-shaped leaves, 

 the terminal lobe large, triangular-hastate, acute ; the stem simple, 

 heads racemose, bracts, peduncles, and involucres, glandular hairy; the 

 fruit oblong, not attenuated, with many ribs. This plant has blue 

 flowers in small numerous heads, with a stem about 3 feet high. It is 

 a remarkably handsome plant, and is the only British species of the 

 genus. It is the Sonchut caruleva of Smith in the English botany. 

 The only locality in which it grows in Great Britain is the Clooa 

 Mountains of Scotland. 



M. floridanum is a native of America, and on account of its excessive 

 bitterness is called Gall of the Earth. 



(Babington, Manual ; Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom.) 



MULI'NIA, Dr. Gray's name for a genus of Conchifera, allied to 

 Mactra, having the ligament, properly so called, internal, and the 

 lateral teeth simple. 



MULLET. [MumLiD*:; MULLCS.] 



MULLUS, a genus of Fishes belonging to the group Acantkoplerygii 

 and the family Percida. The species have the body thick oblong ; 

 profile of the head approaching to a vertical line ; scales large, decidu- 

 ous ; two dorsal fins widely separated, the rays of the first spinous, 

 those of the second flexible ; teeth on the lower jaw and palate only ; 

 two cirri at the symphysia of the lower jaw ; branchiostegous rays 4. 

 There are two species of this genus found in Europe, and both are 

 inhabitant* of the seas of Great Britain. 



M. rurmulelui, the Striped Red Mullet, or Striped Surmullet, has 

 the following fin-ray formula : D. 71 + 8; P. 17 ; V. 1 + 5; A. 

 2 + 6; C. 13. 



The forehead, nape, cheeks, and operculuui are covered with scales ; 



irides pale-yellow ; mucous-pores abundant ; the colour of the body 

 is from a pink to a bright-red ; the membrane of the first dorsal-fin is 

 tinged with yellow ; those of the other fins transparent ; the axilla of 

 the ventral fin furnished with a pointed scale ; the vent placed under 

 the commencement of the second dorsal fin. 



The Striped Red Mullet is abundant on the southern coasts of Great 

 Britain , but is rarer on the eastern and northern coasts. This fish is 

 good eating, and is sent in large numbers from the coasts to the 

 London market. In the month of August, 1819, 5000 were taken off 

 Weymouth, and in one week during the month of May, 1831, 10,000 

 were sent to London from Yarmouth. The Striped Red Mullet was 

 a favourite dish amongst the ancient Romans, and large prices were 

 paid for them. " A fish of 3 Ibs. weight produced a considerable sum 

 to the fortunate fisherman, while the cost of a fish of 4^ Ibs., says 

 Martial, was ruinous. A Mullet of 6 Ibs. is recorded to have produced 

 a sum equal to 48/. ; one still larger 611. ; and even 240J. were given 

 for them of unusual size, procured on the same day, for a repast of 

 more than usual magnificence." (Yarrell.) On our own coast this 

 fish seldom exceeds 14 inches in length. 



The Striped Red Mullet spawns in the spring, aud the young are 

 5 inches long in October. Their food consists of the softer crustace- 

 ous and molluscous creatures. The cirri, which are generally placed 

 near the mouth, seem to act as organs of feeling, whereby these 

 animals are enabled to distinguish their food. Mr. Yarrell says, " On 

 dissecting these appendages in the Mullet, the Common Cod, and 

 others, I found them to consist of an elongate and slender flexible 

 cartilage, invested by numerous longitudinal muscular aud nervous 

 fibres, and covered by an extension of the common skin. The muscu- 

 lar apparatus is most apparent in the Mullet, the nervous portion most 

 conspicuous in the Cod. These appendages are to them, I have no 

 doubt, delicate organs of touch, by which all the species provided 

 with them are enabled to ascertain, to a certain extent, the qualities 

 of the various substances with which they are brought in contact, aud 

 are analogous in function to the beak, with its distribution of nerves, 

 among certain wading and swimming birds which probe for food beyond 

 their sight; and may be considered another instance, among the 

 beautiful provisions of nature, by which in the case of fishes feeding 

 at great depths, where light is deficient, compensation is made for im- 

 perfect vision." (' British Fishes,' vol. i., p. 34.) This and the next 

 species must not be confounded with the Gray Mullet, which belongs 

 to a very different family of Acanthopterygious Fishes. [MUGILID^E.] 



M. barbatus, the Plain Red Mullet, the Surmullet, the Red Surmullet. 

 This fish is much rarer on the British coasts than the last. They 

 seem to be equally abundant in the Mediterranean. The fin-rays are 

 as follows : D. 71 + 8 ; P. 16 ; V. 6 ; A. 1 + 6; C. 15. The scales 

 are somewhat smaller than in the last and present some structural 

 differences. 



(Yarrell, History of British Fishes.) 



MULTIVALVES, th name formerly used to designate those shells 

 which were made up of more than two pieces. Thus the Cirrhipeds 

 (Lepas) were all multivalve shells of Linnsms, and so were Chiton and 

 Pholas. 



MUNTJAK. [CERVID.E.] 



MUR^E'NID^E, or ANGUI'LLID.E, a family of Fishes belonging 

 to the Apodal section of the Malacopteryyii. These fishes have an 

 elongated and often cylindrical body, covered by a thick and soft skin 

 in which the scales are deeply imbedded and scarcely apparent. Th^y 

 have no cseca, but nearly all are furnished with a natatory bladder. 

 In the first group, which constitutes the great genus Murcena of 

 Linnseus, the opercula are small, and enveloped in the skin ; the gill- 

 opening is small, and is situated far back, an arrangement which, by 

 more completely protecting the branchial, permits these fishes to live 

 a long time out of water. They have no ventral fins. 



The species of the genus Anyuilla, are distinguished by the pos- 

 session of pectoral fins ; the dorsal, aual, and caudal fins are united, 

 the dorsal commences at a considerable distance behind the pectorals ; 

 the upper jaw is shorter than the lower ; the gills opening by a small 

 aperture on each side, situated beneath the pectoral fin. Three if not 

 four species of Anyuilla, or Eel, are found in this country the 

 Sharp-Nosed Eel, the Broad-Nosed Eel, and the Suig. 



A. acutirostris (Yarrell), the Sharp-Nosed Eel, may be distinguished, 

 as its name implies, by its comparatively narrow and sharp muzzle. 

 "The head is compressed, the top convex, depressed as it slopes 

 forwards ; the eyes small, placed immediately over the angle of the 

 mouth ; irides reddish-yellow ; the jaws very narrow, slightly rounded 

 at the end ; the lower jaw the longest ; nostrils with two openings on 

 each side, one tubular, the other a single orifice ; both jaws furnished 

 with a narrow band of small teeth ; gape small ; various mucous 

 pores about the mouth aud other parts of the head ; gill-opening a 

 small aperture immediately before and rather below the origin of the 

 pectoral fin. The scales on the body rather small ; dorsal fin extend- 

 ing over more than two thirds of the whole length of the fish ; anal 

 fin occupying more than half the whole length ; both united at the 

 end, forming a tail ; the number of rays in the first fins not easily 

 ascertained, from the thickness of the skin ; the lateral line exhibits 

 a long series of mucous orifices; vetebroe 113. The vent includes 

 four distinct openings, the most anterior of which leads upwards to 

 the intestine, the posterior to the urinary bladder, in a direction back- 



