FISH AND FISHERIES. 73 
“Mugils are very distinct from the sea, or sand mullet, besides which 
they come down the rivers, and go in shoals or schools in their season, 
but do not attain more than one-third the size of the sea mullet, and are 
frequently brought to market with the ordinary net fish, and by which 
means they are usually caught. They are tolerably good and palatable 
fishes, but not so estimable as the large kind named, and it is curious 
and instructive to see practical fishermen following these shoals of fishes 
for the purpose of capture. Almost instinctively they will tell you 
whether they are the hard-gut or the flat-tail, or the tallagallan, directly 
they see any one of these leap from the water, a mode of procedure very 
common to this family of fishes when sporting uninterruptedly. The 
“‘hard-gut”* is the best marketable fish of these three, and may be dis- 
tinguished by- his short thick tail, flat deep sides, and shining scales. 
The tallagallan is a long-bodied fish, and found chiefly on the flats at 
flood-tide, or near shoal water with a deep stream or channel in one part. 
In the young state these fishes are much more delicate and palatable 
than the adult. When they are dry they form, however, a very good 
adjunct to the other fishes of the Colony. The flipper or flat-tail is found 
at the mouths of small fresh-water streams on the clear white sand, and 
readily take a bait of dough and bread-crumbs kneaded together, and at 
which times they afford good sport to those who delight in the pleasure 
of fishing with the rod and line, but they are not more than one-third 
or half-grown at this time.” 
The sea-mullet affords good sport to anglers in the Hunter and other 
eastern rivers. The bait is a small worm, but a far better kind is the 
fine silky green conferva which grows on the surface of stones or logs 
which have been long in the water. Mullet will take this with great 
avidity. The weed must be cut rather long and wound around the 
hook. It must not be confounded with the coarse green woolly conferva 
which covers the bottom like a blanket. Mullet will not touch this. 
The other they eat so greedily that not a particle can be found on the 
stones and logs of the rivers where these fish are abundant. 
A good many divisions and families of fishes must be passed over to 
come to those of most importance to New South Wales. 
II.—Ord. ACANTHOPTERYGII PHARYNCOGNATHI. 
Parts of the rays of the dorsal, anal, and ventral fins are non- 
articulated spines. Lower pharyngeals ‘coalesced, air-bladder without 
pneumatic duct. 
POMACENTRIDA, or CORAL FISHES. 
LABRIDA, or WRASSES. 
The Wrasses are a large family of littoral fishes, very abundant in 
the temperate or tropical zones. Many of them are readily recognized 
by their lips, which are sometimes internally folded, a peculiarity which 
has given the name of Labride, from labrum, lip. They feed chiefly 
on molluscs and ‘crustaceans, their teeth being admirably adapted for 
crushing hard substances. Many species have a strong curved tooth at 
the posterior extremity of the intermaxillary, for the purpose of pressing 
* The ‘“ Hard-gut” is merely an early stage of the Sea Mullet. A, Oliver. 
EK 
