MUGIL. 429 



" As a family the Mullets are essentially shore fishes, but they have a preference for 

 the mouths of rivers and cut-off lakes where the water is brackish, while not 

 unfrequently they are found to enter rivers. Bouri and Tobar have been caught in 

 the Nile as far south as Assouan. When kept in fresh water ponds, Mullets are found 

 to improve rapidly in weight and condition." 



The posterior part of the stomach of the Grey Mullets, which is muscular and 

 resembles the gizzard of a fowl, is considered a delicacy by the fishermen. The roes 

 are salted, pressed, and dried, and sold under the name of " battarah," which is 

 usually served as a hors-d'oeuvre at the tables of the wealthier natives. 



Representations of the Grey Mullets appear in several fishing-scenes of the ancient 

 Egyptians *. Their habit of ascending the Nile from the sea was well known to the 

 ancients, Strabo mentioning the Mullet as the only fish, besides the Dolphin and the 

 Shad, doing so, and he adds that it keeps company with the Schalls (Synodontis), 

 which, by means of their strong spines, defend them against the Crocodiles f . 



1. MUGIL CEPHALUS. 

 (Plate LNXX. fig. 1.) 



Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 520 (1766) ; Sonnini, Voy. Egypte, ii. p. 296, pi. xxiii. fig. 2 (1799) ; 

 Delaroche, Ann. Mus. xiii. 1809, p. 358, pi. xx. fig. 4 ; Cuvier, Regne Anim. 2nd ed. ii. p. 231 

 (1829) ; Bonaparte, Icon. Faun. Ital., Pesc. (1834) ; Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Poiss. xi. 

 p. 19, pi. cccvii. (1836) ; Lowe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1843, p. 86 ; Guichenot, Explor. Alg., Poiss. 

 p. 67 (1850) ; Giinther, Cat. Fish. iii. p. 417 (1861); Blanchard, Poiss. France, p. 231 (1866); 

 Steindachner, Sitzb. Ak. Wien, lvii. i. 1868, p. 680 ; Giinther, Petherick's Trav. ii. p. 209 

 (1869) ; Steindachner, Sitzb. Ak. Wien, lxi. i. 1870, p. 952 ; Moreau, Poiss. France, iii. p. 183 

 (1881) ; Jordan & Evermann, Fish. N. Amer. p. 811 (1896) ; Boulenger, Poiss. Bass. Congo, 

 p. 353 (1901) ; H. W. Fowler, Proc. Ac. Philad. lv. 1904, pp. 743 & 744, fig. 



Mugil albula, Linnseus, t. c. p. 520. 



Mugil tang, Bloch, Nat. Ausl. Fische, viii. p. 171, pi. cccxcv. (1793). 



Mugil plumieri, Bloch, t. c. p. 173, pi. cccxcvi. 



Mugil lineatus, Cuvier & Valenciennes, t. c. p. 96. 



Mugil rammelsbergii, Tschudi, Faun. Per., Ichth. p. 20 (1845). 



Mugil berlandieri, Girard, U.S. Mex. Bound. Surv. i. Ichth. p. 20, pi. x. figs. 1-4 (1859). 



Mugil guentheri, Gill, Proc. Ac. Philad. 1863, p. 169. 



* Tomb of Ti, Sakkara (unpublished photographs in Prof. Flinders Petrie's collection); tomb of 

 Ptah-Hotep (cf. Quibell, The Eamesseum : London, 1898, pi. xxxii.) ; east wall of chapel of Ptah-Hotep 

 (cf. N. de G. Davies, The Mastaba of Ptahhetep : London, 1900, pi. xxv.) ; tombs of Deir el Gebrawi 

 (cf. N. de Gr. Davies, Eock Tombs of Dheir el Gebrawi, i. & ii. : London, 1902); ivory figure in tomb of 

 Nagadah (J. De Morgan, Ethnogr. Prehistor. : Paris, 1897, p. 193, fig.). 



t Quoted by Cuvier and Valenciennes, xi. p. 62. 



