THE GREY MULLETS AND ATHERINES 185 



It can live in comfort in brackish water as well as in the 

 open sea, but is said to spawn entirely in the latter. The 

 teeth, when present, are so small as to be scarcely functional, 

 and many examples lack them altogether, subsisting on soft 

 food, and straining the water through the gauze-like sieve of 

 their gill-rakers, after the fashion of herrings. Small worms, 

 molluscs, and crustaceans doubtless form much of their food, 

 but they are also regarded as partly vegetable-feeders, while 

 ragworms are the bait found most successful by amateurs. 

 The stomach is exceedingly muscular, and has been compared 

 In structure to that of birds ; while the folded intestine is of 

 such immense length that one in a mullet of only 13 in. has 

 been found to measure 7 ft. The gill-openings are wide, and 

 this is particularly noticeable in the aquarium, when these fish 

 are taking in gravel and expelling it every moment. The eye 

 is small and has a thick lid. The lip is fleshy, and the 

 writer never came across a British mullet with any other 

 condition of the lip, though in the Mediterranean the thin- 

 lipped kind is common. 



It cannot be said that the grey mullet offers any peculiari- 

 ties of outline or colouration that lend themselves to easy 

 description. It is a typical round fish, silvery grey in colour, 

 and some examples have darker lines along the sides from head 

 to tail. The tail-fin is deeply forked, and there are two short 

 fins on the back, the front one having four stiff spines. When 

 caught in brackish water, the grey mullet is very slimy to the 

 touch, though those taken in estuaries are regarded as better 

 food than specimens from deeper water. This fish grows to 

 a length of at least a yard, and there are records of specimens 

 weighing 10 lb. or 12 lb. Large mullet are not as a rule 

 easily induced to take the hook, particularly in the English 

 Channel, where the bulk of those brought to market are 

 captured in short seines. In the Mediterranean, however, 

 perhaps because the natives of Southern France and Italy have 

 .unquestionably made a closer study of their capture with the 



