248 PROSE HALIEUTICS. 



mullet ;' a verbal restitution -wliieli we would accordingly 

 venture to propose, of a phrase in the immortal bard,* vice 

 ' mallet,' the present reading ; mallets are only dull by a 

 dull metaphor, but the conduct of (grey) mullets, proves 

 them to be really dull. Passing by the interesting small 

 group of Atherines, the ' aphyes' of Aristotle, the ' non- 

 nati' of whose teeming atoms the modern Neapolitan 

 makes the most delicate of fish fritturas,t we come to 

 the family of 



The Gobioides,J 



Of which the blennies (so called by the Greeks from 

 their slimy surface) form the first genus. The section 

 blennius includes, amidst a great number of species, not a 

 few whose peculiarities of organization render them ex- 

 tremely interesting : some, like vipers and sharks, bring 

 forth their young aUve ; one individual has tufts like eye- 

 brows on his head, and is called therefore the ' super- 

 cilious blenny ;' another (the bl. opistognathus) is distin- 

 guished by his ' large maxiUaries, prolonged into a kind 

 of flat moustache' ;§ another, from a dilating crest which 

 grows red at the nuptial season, is called bl. rubiceps, 

 or ' red-cap ;' whilst another, the bl. saliens, is famed for 

 jumping on and off rocks. The anarrhichas lupus, a 

 large and very interesting fish, abundant in the north, 

 and largely consumed both fresh and salted by Icelanders, 

 who moreover use the gall for soap and make shagreen 

 of the hide, is also, according to Cuvier, ' nothing but 



* Henry IV. Part II. 



t They were equally celebrated among the Greeks, who had a 

 proverb, iSe nvp atpirj (the aphye sees the fire), to point out the ce- 

 lerity with which these black-eyed pigmies ought to be dressed. 

 CiccineUi, the Naples name for non-nati, is restricted to one 

 species, whereas Aristotle's d(f>vri included the fry of many dis- 

 similar fish. 



X Family 12th. § Cuvier. 



