234 ACANTHOPTERYGIL 



is abundant ; and while searching for food it makes excavations, known to fishermen 

 as mullet holes. Along the south coast in June, July, and August, it goes into 

 harbours for food, and during these months in 1880 among those I saw all were 

 of the thick-lipped species, Mugil chelo, of which I obtained examples at Penzance, 

 Plymouth, and Dawlish, but did not see a single one of the thin-lipped M. capito. 

 Thompson observes that in Ireland it is sought for from the middle of March 

 until the beginning of October. During the fine weather of summer, and especially 

 at high water, it frequently ascends to the surface, either for sport or searching for 

 floating food ; while at night time its activity often increases, and numbers of 

 them leaping about will make the water seem quite alive. In a very hot season, 

 Tarrell observes, mullets in the Avon were observed to ascend to nearly twenty 

 miles, and far beyond the flow of even spring tides. 



At Belfast, notwithstanding the great increase of shipping of late years, it is 

 as plentiful in the bay as it ever was known to be by the few persons engaged in 

 its capture (Thompson, 1838). 



During the first two weeks in April, 1847, a large shoal of mullet appeared at 

 Coldingham, near Berwick, a fish very rare in that locality. Having been seen 

 daily going with the tide, a net was placed across the entrance to the harbour which 

 was crowded with them. Numbers were taken, the rest at once went away. A 

 somewhat similar occurrence was said to have occurred ten years previously a 

 little further to the west. Mullet sometimes live some hours after removal from 

 the water. It is very destructive to molluscs and minute Crustacea ; it also eats 

 larvaB and ova. It lives on soft food and is rarely captured except by means of 

 drag nets or seines. Thompson observed, respecting the contents of the stomachs 

 of some of these fish examined at various seasons, that from the minute size of the 

 contained objects it occasions many hundredfold greater destruction of animal 

 life than he had ever witnessed on a similar inspection of the food of any bird or fish. 

 He obtained from them examples of Mytilus edulis, Modiola papuana, Kellia rubra, 

 Slcenea depressa, Littorina retusa, Rissoa labiosa, and R.parva, Serpuloe, and Miliolce. 

 There were also minute Crustacea, and fragments of Zostera marina and Confervce. 

 Dr. Drummond found Algae in the stomachs of some, as Enteromorpha compressa. 

 A correspondent of Thompson's informed him that about the middle of July, 1843, 

 he saw about forty mullets enjoying themselves by drinking in from a stream of 

 fresh water as it joined the sea-water of Belfast Bay. They sometimes are 

 observed to frequent localities where drains open, evidently for the purpose of 

 feeding. In an aquarium they will feed on large lob-worms or chopped up 

 mussels. 



Means of capture. — Trammel or set nets, but at low water the draft net is used, 

 while at Belfast cow-dung is spread on the water as an attraction, and which 

 they greedily devour. Sometimes in small streams, as near Southampton, shoals 

 ascend and may be hooked with an artificial fly. In the Field for July, 1881, it is 

 observed that Mr. H. R. White has not omitted taking gray mullet for some years 

 past with the soft inner portion of the stump of boiled cabbage, which, when he 

 sees these fish priming on the surface of the water, he contrives, with the aid of 

 his boat, to trail through the school, allowing the bait not to sink more than two 

 feet. Fine and strong tackle is necessary, with plenty of running line — as some 

 of their dashes are of so impetuous a character that the tackle would go upon any 

 determined attempt to restrain them. Others who have tried it have not been 

 equally successful. The milt of a salt herring has also been recommended as a bait. 

 They are a very sporting fish, and fight hard when hooked, making repeated leaps 

 out of the water to release themselves. 



In Ireland, Thompson observed that these fishes are guided by the weather, 

 which must be moderate, they being taken at night in the largest numbers, when 

 they cannot so well avoid the fatal net. In clear moonlight and by day fish of every 

 size often clear the net sometimes springing five and six feet over it, and when one 

 has set the example nearly all are sure to follow. He observed that an acquaintance 

 out eel-spearing once struck and secured with his spear a mullet of 5 lb. weight 

 as it was swimming on the surface. Dr. Ball likewise remarked that at Kingstown 

 a dexterous individual kills many with a light spear. A correspondent of Land 



