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THE GRAY MULLET. 



tries to creep under it ; and if that mode of escape be cut off, it examines every mesh, 

 in hopes of finding some defective spot through which it may insinuate itself. Mr. 

 Couch mentions that he has seen a Gray Mullet, after trying all other modes of escape, 

 deliberately retire to the greatest possible distance from the wall of net, and then dash 

 furiously at the meshes, as if to break through them. 



It likes a frequent change from salt to fresh water, and often proceeds up rivers to 

 some little distance, returning, however, with the tide. It has even been taken from 

 the sea and placed in a fresh-water pond, where it has grown well and obtained a great 

 weight in proportion to its length. While feeding, it may be seen rooting in the mud 

 in a very swine-like fashion ; and can mostly be captured by using a bait composed of 

 boiled meat or vegetables. It is, however, not easily hooked, as its peculiar mode of 

 feeding causes it to detect the hard hook and to keep it so slightly within the mouth 

 that the lip only is caught, and will mostly yield to the struggles of the fish. The fly, 

 however, is often used successfully; and it is found that the Gray Mullet will bite even 

 at the great gaudy salmon-flies, so large and so unlike any fly of any climate that they 

 would hardly be thought capable of deceiving a mole. 



GRAY MULLET. -Mugll capHo, 



The color of the Gray Mullet is bluish gray above, and the sides and abdomen are 

 white with a silvery lustre, and traversed with several longitudinal lines of darkish gray. 

 There is a dark spot towards the base of the pectoral fin. 



The genus Mugil is very large, containing between sixty and seventy species, several 

 of which are found in British waters. 



THE fishes belonging to the family of the Ophiocephalida;, or snake-headed fishes, 

 are able to leave the water for a time and to crawl upon land, deriving their power 

 from a curious structure of the breathing organs. It has already been stated that 

 a nsh can breathe as long as the delicate membranes of the gills are wet ; and that 



those fishes which are able to live out of water for any length of time, a peculiar 

 modification of the breathing organs is requisite in order to supply the needful moist- 

 ure. In the family to which the climbing perch belongs, a series of thin laminated 



