SURFACE-FEEDING SEA FISH 355 



met with such extraordinary success ; indeed, if everyone were 

 to kill bass in this wholesale way, in the next edition of this 

 work the article on ' Labrax lupus ' might be omitted. 



The GREY MULLET, like the bass, has a prickly dorsal fin. 

 It is very easily distinguished from its more voracious com- 

 panion by the fact that this fin contains only four very evident 

 spines, while that of the bass contains eight. The mouth of the 

 mullet, too, is small and only suited for soft food. Of these 

 fish there are two kinds, the great grey mullet (Mugil capito) 

 and the lesser grey mullet (Mugil chelo\ the latter being very 

 abundant in some South-coast harbours, and sometimes as easy 

 of capture as the great grey mullet is difficult. A distinction 

 between the two varieties is the number of rays in the tail fin, 

 the larger kind, which is also called the ' thin-lipped mullet,' 

 having seventeen, while the lesser, or thick-lipped mullet, has 

 fifteen. 



Of red, or surmullet, beloved of the Romans, I need say 

 nothing, for these fish are very rarely captured, except in nets, 

 either by the sportsman or the professional fisherman, only 

 now and again succumbing to the charms of a harbour-bred 

 ragworm, more particularly in the neighbourhood of very foul 

 drains. I commend this point to the attention of those who 

 deem red mullet worthless unless served a la woodcock. A 

 good many are caught in trammel nets. 



Grey mullet are gregarious, and very plentiful in some 

 estuaries and harbours, Chichester, Littlehampton, Plymouth, 

 Weymouth, and the mouth of the Stour being favourite haunts 

 of theirs. They appear to be as much at home in fresh water 

 as in salt. At one time shoals were to be found in Oulton 

 Broad, entering there, no doubt, when the lock was open, or, 

 perhaps, making their way by the Yare and journeying round 

 to Mutford. 



In the thirties a gentleman named Arnold, living at 



