GREY MULLETS 



THESE fishes are all closely similar. They have an elegantly 

 shaped, somewhat elongated body, rather rounded, covered with 

 smooth-edged scales. There are two short dorsal fins, the front 

 one composed of four spines. The ventral fin is opposite the 

 second dorsal. The pelvic or throat-fin is behind the breast-fin. 

 The tail-fin is large and somewhat forked. The teeth are very 

 feeble or absent. These fish belong to the tropical and tem- 

 perate shores, and frequent harbours, inlets, and estuaries. They 

 feed largely on the vegetable growths of green or brown colour 

 which form a coating over all objects in shallow water, and they 

 suck gravel, sand, and mud to obtain the same substances ; 

 minute molluscs are also found in their stomachs. The latter 

 are provided with a strong gizzard like that of a bird, and the 

 intestine is very long and folded. 



The spawn has not been studied in this country, but at 

 Naples Raffaele fertilised artificially the eggs of one species, 

 probably the thin-lipped mullet. They were of the free buoyant 

 kind, about ^ inch in breadth, and having a simple yolk with a 

 single oil globule. The larva was like that of other fishes with 

 buoyant eggs. 



As mullet are so frequently found in brackish water, and can 

 be kept in fresh water, the question arises whether all of them 

 spawn in the sea. Concerning species which naturally live 

 in fresh water permanently, there is no doubt that they spawn 

 there, but with regard to brackish water forms like our own they 

 doubtless spawn in the sea, and there is no reliable evidence 

 that they can spawn and develop when confined in fresh water. 



There are generally stated to be two British species, one in 

 which the upper lip is thin, and the other in which it is thick. 

 Certain other minute differences exist between them, but at 

 Plymouth all that I have seen belonged to the thick-lipped 

 species. Perhaps the other species is scarce. 



