204 SPINY-FINNED FISHES 



from its native element with a fling of the cast-net that 

 experience alone can give. If you wish to beguile the Silver 

 King, you first catch a Mullet, or buy one, for bait. 



The name of this fish brings vividly to mind the balmy 

 air and placid waters of Indian River, I'lorida, in February; 

 a little, mangrove-clad archipelago along its eastern shore; 

 herons squawking hoarsely in the green tangle; and small 

 fishes of glistening silver jumping a yard high in front of a 

 lotus-eater's boat. The Mullet leaps high in the air, gleam- 

 ing and dripping, from pure joy in being alive amid such 

 beautiful surroundings; and, having attained his zenith, he 

 relaxes and falls back broadside upon the water, with a 

 startling ".S'/ap." In one quiet evening hour afloat, you may 

 see thirty or forty Mullet leap out of water, and to some 

 persons the sight is even more welcome than the flight of a 

 bird. 



The Silver Mullet is a very trim little fish — big-scaled, 

 round-bodied and swift. In external appearance it is very 

 much like a pygmy tarpon, and quite as silvery. It is really 

 a small fish, averaging about 9 inches in length, and as food 

 for other fishes and fish-eating birds it is ideal. The brown 

 pelicans of Pelican Island delight in this fish. When Mrs. 

 Latham playfully squeezed the neck of a big, clumsy young 

 pelican in the down, it promptly disgorged nine good-sized 

 jNIullet. I have seen a darter, with a neck 1 inch in 

 diameter, swallow a 9-inch Mullet with relish and despatch. 

 One point, however, should be clearly understood. The idea 

 that the few Mullet that are, or that might be, eaten by peli- 

 cans and other birds ever have made a visible depression of 



