100 ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



originally smooth, Uie tongue would probably continue so, were the specimen 

 preserved in spirits, although, were it preserved dry, this organ might become 

 rough. In the number of rays in the branchiostegous membrane and in the fins 

 there is a general agreement between Bloch's C. Uenia and the specimen inider 

 consideration. The C. tarnia is described to have in Branc. memb. 6; P. 15 ; V. 

 6; A. G3; C. 10; D. 66. 



" It seems unnecessary to extend the description any further, or to those cha- 

 racters on which authors are agreed. In the 10th volume of the Histoire 

 Naturelle des Poissons, of Cuvier and Valenciennes, which did not appear in 

 time to be quoted in the excellent volumes of Mr. Yarrell (Brit. Fishes), and 

 Mr. Jenyns (Man. Brit. Vert.), the C. rubescens is treated of m the usual full 

 and complete manner characteristic of that great work. The subject occupies 

 thirteen pages, in Avhich the C. rubescens is set forth as the only species of its 

 genus yet discovered in the European seas, the C. tieiiia, C. marcjinata, &c., 

 being rejected as species. I have, nevertheless, thought it might not be useless 

 to describe the present individual, so far as I have done, in consequence of its 

 superior size to Cuvier and Valenciennes' specimens, and which did not come 

 under their observation in a recent state. 



" Of four Mediterranean specimens (preserved in spirits) of C. rubescens 

 which I have examined, and wliich were obtained at the Ionian Islands, by Ro- 

 bert Templeton, Esq., of the Royal Artillery, and presented, along with many 

 other fish from the same locality, to the Natural History Society of Belfast, one 

 is 6 inches, and the other three from 9 to 10 inches in length. The smallest is 

 very considerably compressed, quite as much so as the largest, although an indivi- 

 dual of about equal size, described by Mr. Couch (Linn. Trans, vol. xiv. p. 

 76), was nearly round, from which some authors have inferred that this is the 

 general form of the species in a young state. In the two larger individuals, 

 which are in better preservation than the others, the series of bone-like pro- 

 cesses appear on the dorsal ridge, and also on the ventral, though less conspicu- 

 ously. In all, the tongue is smooth. In none of them are there any teeth, 

 either inside or outside the row on the lower jaw, and in both jaws the teeth 

 are much fewer in number than in the large specimen which is the subject of 

 this communication." 



FamiJij MUGILID.E. 



The Thick-lipped Grey Mullet, 3IuriU Chela, Cuv., 



Frequents the East coast, from North to South, but whether or not it is 

 the mullet found around the island I have not had the means of judg- 

 ing. All of those which I have critically examined from the North-East 

 coast, from Dublin, and from Cork, were of this species. 



The following notes were communicated by me, in 1838, to the Annals 

 of Nat. Hist. (vol. i. p. 350) :— 



" On endeavouring, in the spring of 1835, to identify the common miillet of 

 Ireland with Cuvier's species in the Regno Animal, I perceived its agree- 

 ment with the few characters there attributed to M. Chclo, but before record- 

 ing it as this species, awaiting a comparison with a more detailed description. 

 This has since been afforded me in the Histoire des Poissons of the same 

 illustrious author; and, together with the accompanying figure illustrative of 

 the head of M. Chelo, confirms, beyond a doubt, the identity of the species. 



" In the justly valued works of Yarrell * and Jenyns, f Mr. Couch is mention- 

 ed as the only naturalist who has noticed the appearance of the M. Chelo on the 

 British coast ; but in a review of the British Fishes in the Magazine of Zoology 

 and Botany, it is remarked, ' the thick-lipped grey mullet, reckoned so rare 

 by Mr. Yarrell, as to have been seen only once by Mr. Couch, is the common 



* History of British Fishes. f Manual of British Vertebrate Animals. 



