LABYRINTHIFORM PHARYNGEALS. 247 



sea it is a poor fish, but in clear running streams few are 

 better flavoured, or enjoy a higher character at table. 

 Being however a notorious glutton, who devours every- 

 thing that comes to mouth (even to the outpourings of the 

 drains*) J the KearpeiK;, mugU, or cefalo, under each of its 

 several Greek, Latia, and Italian aliases, has always been 

 eviscerated and the inside carefully scoured before cook- 

 ing ;t and the practice of connoisseurs has generally been 

 to abstain entirely from such as came from doubtful loca- 

 lities, or from stagnant pools known to abound in reeds, 

 or with an oozy, foul bottom. Those, therefore, from the 

 swampy lagunes about Padua, Comacchio, and Ravenna 

 (sites long celebrated for the fineness of their eels) have 

 always been held cheap, and enjoyed a bad reputation ; 

 whilst those, on the other hand, which the clear whole- 

 some waters of Abdera and Ul-starred Sinope engender, 

 have always been in favour, very early receiving, and no 

 doubt well deserving, the lavish commendations bestowed 

 on them in the savoury pages of the great Deipnosophist, 

 — quem lege ! 



Pliny speaks of the stupid character and conduct of 

 the mugU, who thrusts his head into the sand in the 

 hope of escaping observation, notunfrequently losing there- 

 by his tail whilst he is protecting his pericranium. In al- 

 lusion to this known trait of mugil imbecHity, there may 

 have been ia Shakspeare's day the adage, 'Dull as a 



* Mugil capito, says Crouch, is tlie only fisli of wMoh. I am 

 able to express my belief that it usually selects for food notbing 

 that has life, although it sometimes swallows the common sand- 

 worm. 



t "We have partaken of one this summer from the Orwell, near 

 Ipswich, weighing 12 lbs. ; the lining -membrane of the stomach of 

 these mugils is dark, nearly black, the walls thick and almost 

 gristly ; the intestines are commonly buried in fat, which fish- 

 mongers do not send with them ; one indeed told us he had 

 known several families made lE in consequence of negleotiug the 

 precaution of thoroughly cleaning the inside. 



