FISHES. 



623 



the eyes a pale gold colour, just touched with red ; the head bears 

 two barbels. This beautiful fish is plentiful in the Mediterranean, 

 and sometimes in the Channel, it is not very rare on the British 

 coasts, is common in the gulfs of Gascony, and is frequently served 

 on the table at Bordeaux and Bayonne, where it is known as the 

 barbel ; its flesh is a little flaky, of an agreeable flavour, but less 

 esteemed than the red mullet. 



The Red Mullet (Mullus barbatus) is clothed in brilliant colour 

 of bright red, mingling with silvery tints upon the side and belly ; it 



i^. 394. The Weever-fish (Trachinus communis). 



presents fine indistinct reflections, but none of the yellow lines which 

 occur in the preceding species. It is to its brilliant colouring that 

 the red mullet owes much of its celebrity. When we add that its 

 flesh is white, firm, and agreeable to the taste, the estimation in 

 which it was held by the ancients is sufficiently explained. With 

 the Romans the mullet was an object of luxury on which they 

 expended fabulous sums ; they cultivated the fish in their fish-ponds 

 not only as a delicacy of the table, but for the beauty of its form and 

 colour. This fierce love of beauty, however, too often approached 

 to cruelty. Seneca and Pliny both give us to understand that the 

 rich patricians of Rome gave themselves the barbarous pleasure of 

 seeing the mullet expire under their eyes, in order to witness the 



