— 6 - 



seem to frequent more especially the deeper parts and 

 those undergrown with Ruppia maritima. There they 

 may be seen in hundreds, leaping clear of the water to a 

 height of a metre or more and alighting thi^ee or four metres 

 from the point of emergence, to continue their perform- 

 ance several times before they again seek the depths of 

 the lake. It occasionally happens that several leap into 

 a boat which may be sailing through one of these shoals. 

 When they are about to leave the lake to spawn , both 

 sexes congregate in large shoals in the proportion of from' 

 four to five males to one female. Their energy seems now 

 devoted to the great object of theii' lives, for no longer is 

 it expended in saltatory evolutions and even their natural 

 wariness is diminished. At this season they faU an easy 

 prey to the fishermen who, apprised, of their approach to 

 the sea, await an opportunity of filling their nets. 



Grey mullet are not, by ciny means, clean feeders. 

 Any garbage or decomposing organic matter is eagerly 

 devoured. Numbers are found feeding on sewage in the 

 bay to the east of Matarieh, the natural cesspool of the 

 town. Notwithstanding this habit, they are much esteemed 

 as food, their flesh is firm and flaky though somewhat 

 oily, and it is not wanting in flavour when properly 

 cooked. 



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 \\'ater is brackish, while not 

 un frequently 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, mullet are 



