258 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



1st of May, 1838, 7 cwt. of these fish were taken at a single 

 draught of the net; and on the same night, 9 cwt. were 

 secured by the crew of another boat. A Mullet of large size 

 will occasionally weigh so much as 10 or 121bs.; and one 

 specimen is recorded as being so much as 14|lbs.* 



The Mullet was believed by the ancients to be the most 

 innocent of fish, and one that did not select as food anything 

 that had life. But the Grey Mullet of Belfast Bay has habits 

 so very much the reverse, that Mr. Thompson remarks, after 

 an examination of the stomachs of many individuals, that 

 they presented ' ' many hundred-fold greater destruction of 

 animal life than he had ever witnessed on a similar inspection 

 of the food of any bird or fish. From a single stomach he 

 had taken as many univalve and bivalve mollusca as would 

 fill a large-sized breakfast cup; so that one of these stomachs 

 may justly be regarded as quite a storehouse to a concholo- 

 gist." In clear moonlight, and by clay, Mullet of every size 

 often clear the net, sometimes springing five or six feet over 

 it, and when one has set the example, nearly all are sure to 

 follow it. Having surmounted the meshy barrier, they some- 

 times take two or three additional leaps, and skim the surface 

 beautifully, before again subsiding beneath it. 



Tcenioidei.] We shall not dwell on the family of the 

 Riband-shaped fishes, as it contains but about half-a-dozen of 

 native species, and but little is known respecting their habits; 

 we shall merely quote one fact to show how appropriate is 



Fig. 206. RED BAJJD-FISH. 



their name. A specimen of the Red Band-fish (Cepola rti- 

 lescens, Fig. 206), as we are informed by Mr. W. Thompson, 



* On Fishes new to Ireland Annals of Natural History, July, 1838. 

 From this paper the information here given on this Mullet is extracted, 

 f The term denotes like a band or stripe. 



