FISHES. 623 
the eyes a pale gold colour, just touched with red ; the head bears 
two barbels. This beautiful fish is plentiful in the Mediterranean, 
and sometimes in the Channel, it is not very rare on the British 
coasts, is common in the gulfs of Gascony, and is frequently served 
on the table at Bordeaux and Bayonne, where it is known as the 
barbel ; its flesh is a little flaky, of an agreeable flavour, but less 
esteemed than the red mullet. 
The Red Mullet (AZud/us barbatus) is clothed in brilliant colour 
of bright red, mingling with silvery tints upon the side and belly ; it 
Fig. 394.—The Weever-fish (Trachinus communis). 
presents fine indistinct reflections, but none of the yellow lines which 
occur in the preceding species. It is to its brilliant colouring that 
the red mullet owes much of its celebrity. When we add that its 
flesh is white, firm, and agreeable to the taste, the estimation in 
which it was held by the ancients is sufficiently explained. With 
the Romans the mullet was an object of luxury on which they 
expended fabulous sums ; they cultivated the fish in their fish-ponds 
not only as a delicacy of the table, but for the beauty of its form and 
colour. ‘This fierce love of beauty, however, too often approached 
to cruelty. Seneca and Pliny both give us to understand that the 
rich patricians of Rome gave themselves the barbarous pleasure of 
seeing the mullet expire under their eyes, in order to witness the 
