120 THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



with gold ; a dark line along each row of scales on the back 

 and sides. 



Habits. Gregarious, frequenting harbours, mouths of 

 rivers so far as the tide extends, inlets of the sea, and but 

 rarely enters deep waters. Is a summer visitant to the 

 Humber estuary, is rather uncertain in its movements, but 

 generally appears in May, and leaves in August. It seems 

 to delight in the most oozy parts of bays, and where the 

 grass-wrack, Zostera marina^ abounds. 



Breeding. Young mullets are first seen off Cornwall late 

 in July, and generally near the surface. About August 

 schools of young mullets (each of which measures about 

 three-quarters of an inch in length) are present along the 

 south coast. I received one i^ inches long taken March 

 2Oth, 1882, in Cornwall, and several up to 3^- inches in length 

 captured the same week near Exeter. While swimming 

 each appears to have a white spot on the back of its head, 

 which disappears on its being removed from the water. 

 Thompson, in Ireland, did not obtain any in spawn from 

 March until September. 



As food. Esteemed for table. The county of Sussex is 

 celebrated in a gastronomical point of view for six things 

 a Chichester lobster, a Selsey cockle, an Arundel mullet, 

 a Pulborough eel, an Amberley trout, and a Rye herring 

 the mullet referred to being this species, according to 

 Yarrell. 



Habitat. Coasts of Scandinavia, the German Ocean and 

 Atlantic coast of Europe to Madeira, and also the Medi- 

 terranean. 



In the Orkneys and Zetland the thick-lipped grey mullet 

 is tolerably frequent from June to September, and is the 

 common species on the eastern shores of Scotland, where 

 M. capita is not known, or is at least far from numerous. 



