Fishes. 1417 



specimens have been taken in Mounts' Bay. One was sent several 

 years ago to the Linnean Society, and the other is preserved in the 

 Penzance Natural History Society. 



Ceil Conin, Gymnetrus Hawkenii. This singular looking fish has 

 been taken in Mount's Bay once in 1791. It was drawn ashore dead 

 near Newlyn. It is found in India. 



Red-band Fish, Cepola rubescens. This is by no means a rare 

 fish, but from some peculiarities of habit is not often taken. I have 

 never seen it taken in a net. Two specimens I have taken from the 

 stomach of a cod, and one from a hake, and several others I have 

 seen washed ashore after a storm. I have seen two alive, and the co- 

 lour was a crimson, with a ground of light-yellow. When dead, it 

 fades to a yellowish white, frequently retaining a red margin round 

 the length of the body. From never having seen it in a net, nor in 

 the stomach of a sand-fish, from having found it in the stomach 

 of the cod and hake, and from its being washed ashore in rocky parts 

 of the Bay, it seems probable that it lives in moderately deep water 

 on rocky ground. 



Gray Mullet, Mugil capilo. Common in sandy bays and creeks. 

 It never goes into very deep water, but during June, July and Au- 

 gust it enters harbours in search of food. During the summer 

 months it may be seen prowling about on the muddy bottoms of ri- 

 vers and harbours, with its mouth close to the ground in search of 

 food. It never eats anything either hard or living, but invariably pre- 

 fers anything soft and pulpy. Its food is taken between its large and 

 fleshy lips, and instead of being swallowed whole, is sucked away in 

 fragments. It is this habit which renders it so difficult to be taken 

 with the hook. During the fine weather of summer it frequently 

 mounts to the surface either for sport, or in search of any floating 

 food. It spawns about June and July, and in August the young may 

 be seen advancing with the flowing tide, up fresh-water streams. The 

 adult ones also like an occasional change to fresh or brackish water. 



Thick-lipped Gray Mullet, Mugil chelo. This is also a common 

 species frequenting our harbours, rivers, and inlets of the sea, in large 

 schulls. It is more gregarious and smaller than the last. It delights 

 in roaming among the loose and soft green sea-weed, over the muddy 

 banks of rivers, or in sporting along the surface of the water on a calm 

 summer evening. Like M. capito it lives on dead and soft food and 

 is rarely, if ever taken, except by the seine or drag-net. There is one 

 habit of this as well as the gray mullet, which though perhaps well- 

 kuown, yet I have so often witnessed it, and always felt so interested 

 IV 5 M 



