90 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



dant on our coasts than the plain Red Mullet, and is distin- 

 guished by the presence of from three to five yellow bands 

 developed along each side, from the head to within a short 

 distance of the caudal fin, is now regarded as a local variety 

 only of the uniformly red species or typical M. barbatus, 

 which is the more common and most esteemed on the coasts 

 of Toulon and Provence. Some authorities premise that the 

 red is the male and the striped form the female, and others 

 that the latter, being invariably the larger, is alone the full- 

 grown fish. It is, at all events, certain that the two are 

 specifically identical, every intermediate condition between 

 the two having been recorded. Dr. Day, in Part I. of his 

 < Fishes of Great Britain,' 1880, is unable to express a 

 decided opinion regarding the food of the Red Mullet, 

 authorities differing in this respect, and the tradition of the 

 ancients being that they were very foul feeders, delighting 

 especially to batten, as is the case with Eels, on putrid 

 substances, including corpses. These fish, however, were 

 cultivated in the tanks of the Brighton Aquarium so long 

 since as the year 1873, and their natural habits observed 

 and recorded by the writer in the official guide-book to that 

 Institution, published that same year. It was then shown 

 that shrimps, worms, and other small living marine animals, 

 form the chief staple of their food, the fish assembling in 

 shoals and systematically beating over the whole ground 

 and rockwork of their tanks, after the manner of well- 

 trained sporting dogs, their pliant barbels, used as feelers, 

 being thrust into every crevice in search of their favourite 

 food. No prettier sight, indeed, is afforded in a well-stocked 

 aquarium than " feeding time " at the Red Mullet tank, 

 when a handful of live Shrimps being thrown in, these 

 Crustacea at once bury themselves in the sand, and are 

 thence one by one dislodged by the hungry fish after 



