82 BRITISH FISH AND FISHEKIES 



heavier for their length than others obtained 

 from the sea. 



Mr. Couch says : " The grey mullet selects 

 food that is soft and fat, or such as has begun 

 to suffer decomposition ; in search of which it is 

 often seen thrusting its mouth into the soft 

 mud, and for selecting it its lips appear to be 

 furnished with exquisite sensibility of taste, 

 It is indeed the only fish of which I am able to 

 express my belief, that it usually selects for food 

 nothing that has life, although it sometimes 

 swallows the common sand-worm." 



The grey mullet breeds at Midsummer. In 

 its form this fish is nearly cylindrical ; the 

 scales are large ; the dorsal fins are two, and 

 widely separated, fin-rays of the first spinous ; 

 the under-jaw is produced into an elevated 

 angular point, received into a corresponding 

 notch in the centre of the upper jaw ; nostrils 

 double. General colour above blueish grey, 

 sides and under parts silvery, with several lon- 

 gitudinal dusky lines. Two additional British 

 species are described, both very rare, namely, 

 the thick-lipped grey mullet, (Mugil 

 and the short grey mullet, (Mugil 

 Yarrell.) 



Along some parts of our southern coast, and 

 especially that of Sussex and Hampshire, and 



