MULLIDiE. 23 



to the vent equals half that of the entire fish excluding the caudal fin. The 

 pyloric appendages consist of some short and other long ones. Scales — when at 

 Mevagissey, in August this year, Mr. Dunn procured for me some splendid 

 examples of this fish, and although the majority had 2^ rows of scales between 

 the lateral-line and the back, others had 3|. Lateral-line — the tubes are much 

 branched. Colours — these vary considerably : in the M. barbatus the fish being of 

 a plain red colour, whereas the M. surmuletus is more or less longitudinally striped, 

 which stripes may be sometimes concealed, while the rich satin-red colour becomes 

 most vivid after the removal of the scales. 



Varieties. — Gronovius considered the Mullus harbatus as the male and 

 M. simmdetus as the female of a single species : but most subsequent authors 

 considered them as specifically distinct. During the last few years it has been 

 advanced that the two are varieties of one form. The distinctions given, and 

 which still pertain to some examples, are as follows : — 



M. barbatus. — The profile of the snout almost vertical, more so than in the 

 M. surmuletus. It is red without any longitudinal stripes, and Yarrell considered 

 the position of the fins differed a little, the first dorsal being said to be more in 

 advance of the pectoral fin and the ventral further behind than in the surmullet : 

 he gives one yellow band along the side below the lateral-line. This form is reputed 

 never to attain the size of the surmullet, and it has been conjectured that they 

 become more striped with age. 



M. surmuletus. — Has generally an oblique profile of the snout. It is of a pale 

 pink becoming yellowish on the sides and along the abdomen : while from three 

 to five bright yellow bands pass from the head along the sides, the two central 

 ones reaching the base of the caudal fin, one above, the other below the lateral- 

 line. First dorsal fin with two longitudinal dark bands, the upper being nearly 

 black and placed on a milk-white ground. Second dorsal with two or more 

 oblique dark bands, and occasionally the caudal fin is also obliquely banded. 

 The outer edges of the scales are often darker than their bases. 



Professor Steindachner observes that he had examined not less than 75 

 examples and found so many variations in the form of their rostral profiles that 

 he felt compelled to consider the M. barbatus and M. surmuletus as the extreme 

 limits of variation of a single species. 



Names. — The M. barbatus is known as the red surmullet, the plain red mullet, 

 or in Welsh Hyrddyn coch. The M. surmuletus is termed surmullet or striped red 

 mullet. De honing van depooti, Dutch. Houget-barbet, French. 



Habits. — These fishes along the southern coast are found in Cornwall at about 

 20 miles out to sea in March, and from 5 to 10 in May, when they come in with 

 the mackerel, and are said to be of a roving disposition, About the end of June 

 they arrive close in shore on sandy spots which are near to rocks, and as soon as 

 startled they dash in among them or under the sea weed. The best and finest 

 coloured ones are in the west portion of the channel dividing England from France. 

 But as might be anticipated, we find occasional visitors on our coasts when 

 least expected, thus on December 24th, 1878, Mr. Cornish obtained one 16 inches 

 long and in good condition at Penzance : and in June 1866 one was captured in a 

 drift net 15 leagues south-west of Scilly in about 60 fathoms water : and Couch 

 :il hides to a trawl vessel of Plymouth which one winter took so many of these 

 fishes that they realized £20. As to the food they eat, opinions vary : the ancients 

 considered them very foul feeders, delighting mostly on corpses, the more putrid 

 they become the larger the assemblies of these fish : the ocean after a sea battle 

 was said to abound with them. It is more probably they devour small Crustacea, 

 crabs, molluscs, &c. In an aquarium they eat pieces of mussel, 



Means of capture. — Ground seines, trammels, trawls and mullet nets. 

 Dr. Bullmorc observes that at Penzance, on their first appearance, they are mostly 

 captured in trawls, at the next spring-tides they become more abundant and are 

 taken in ground seines, sometimes as many as 50 or 60 in a night. At Mevagissey 

 the trammel is formed of three parts fastened by a common head-lino and footline. 

 The meshes of the middle piece will only receive the head and shoulders of the 

 fish, while the outermost pieces will allow the entrance of the mullet's bod)- so 



