204 SPINY-FINNED FISHES 



from its native element with a fling of the cast-net that 

 experience alone can give. If you wish to beguile the Silver 

 King, you first catch a Mullet, or buy one, for bait. 



The name of this fish brings vividly to mind the balmy 

 air and placid waters of Indian River, Florida, in February; 

 a little, mangrove-clad archipelago along its eastern shore; 

 herons squawking hoarsely in the green tangle; and small 

 fishes of glistening silver jumping a yard high in front of a 

 lotus-eater's boat. The Mullet leaps high in the air, gleam- 

 ing and dripping, from pure joy in being alive amid such 

 beautiful surroundings; and, having attained his zenith, he 

 relaxes and falls back broadside upon the water, with a 

 startling "slap." In one quiet evening hour afloat, you may 

 see thirty or forty Mullet leap out of water, and to some 

 persons the sight is even more welcome than the flight of a 

 bird. 



The Silver Mullet is a very trim little fish big-scaled, 

 round-bodied and swift. In external appearance it is very 

 much like a pygmy tarpon, and quite as silvery. It is really 

 a small fish, averaging about 9 inches in length, and as food 

 for other fishes and fish-eating birds it is ideal. The brown 

 pelicans of Pelican Island delight in this fish. When Mrs. 

 Latham playfully squeezed the neck of a big, clumsy young 

 pelican in the down, it promptly disgorged nine good-sized 

 Mullet. I have seen a darter, with a neck 1 inch in 

 diameter, swallow a 9-inch Mullet with relish and despatch. 

 One point, however, should be clearly understood. The idea 

 that the few Mullet that are, or that might be, eaten by peli- 

 cans and other birds ever have made a visible depression of 



