MUGILIDiE. 235 



and Water (Sept. 25tli, 1880), writing from Margate, stated: There is an Italian 

 gentleman here who fishes for gray mullet and bass every day under the jetty with 

 a harpoon, something like an eel spear attached to a line. The fish come to 

 devour the mussels on the piles of the jetty, and he is very dexterous in spearing 

 them. Risso remarked on these fishes being attracted by a light and then speared. 

 Breeding. — Young mullets are first seen ofi" Mevagissey late in July and 

 generally near the surface. In August this year (1881), when at that town, 

 Mr, Dunn pointed me out a school of young mullets (each of which measured 

 about three-quarters of an inch in length) present in the harbour, upwards of a 

 dozen of which were secured by means of a hand net. While swimming they 

 appeared to have a white spot ou the back, which disappeared on their being 

 removed from the water. These belonged to the thick-lipped species. 



Thompson, in Ireland, did not obtain any in spawn from March until 

 September. 



As food. — Esteemed for the table. The county of Sussex is celebrated in a 

 gastronomical point of view for six things — a Chichester lobster, a Selsey cookie, 

 an Arundel mullet, a Pulborongh eel, an Amberley trout, and a Bye herring ; 

 the mullet referred to being this species according to Tarrell. 



Habitat. — Coasts of Scandinavia, the German Ocean and Atlantic coast of 

 Europe to Madeira, and also the Mediterranean. 



In the Orkneys and Zetland the thick-lipped gray mullet is tolerably frequent 

 from June to September (W. Baikie), and is the common species on the eastern 

 shores of Scotland, where we believe M. capito is not known at all, or is at least 

 far from common (Mag. Zool. and Bot. i, p. 390) ; it is common on the west 

 coast of Scotland, and in some seasons numbers are taken off Dunbar (Pamell). 

 It is found at Aberdeen (Sim), and has been noticed off Berwick (Johnston). 

 Occasionally taken on the Yorkshire coast (Meynell, 1844) ; Mr. Barron found it 

 to be the most plentiful of the two species at Portsmouth. I found it common 

 during the end of July and August, 1881, at Dawlish in Devonshire, Plymouth 

 and Penzance being the only species I could detect along the coast. Parnell also 

 observed it to be excessively common on the Devonshire coast in September 

 and October. 



In Ireland it frequents the east coast from north to south, but whether or not 

 it is the mullet found around this island I have not had the means of judging 

 (Thompson) ; it also frequents the south coast of Ireland. 



The example figured is 12 inches in length, but it attains to upwards of 3 feet, 

 and one is recorded from Ireland weighing 14f lb. 



