64 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



FAMILY XXV.— Grey Mullets {Mugilidcf). 



Body more or less oblong and compressed, clothed with 

 cycloid or ctenoid scales ; cleft of the mouth narrow, teeth 

 absent, or feebly developed ; dorsal fins two in number, the 

 anterior one composed of four strong spines ; branchiostegal 

 rays five or six in number ; air-bladder large. 



The Grey Mullets are gregarious, shore-frequenting fishes, 

 which not infrequently ascend the mouths of rivers into 

 brackish and even fresh water. All the species are much 

 esteemed for the table, two of them, the common or thin- 

 lipped Grey Mullet {Mugil capitd), No. 8y, and the Lesser 

 or Thick-lipped variety {Mugil cheld), No. 88, being abun- 

 dant on the British coasts. When fished for and enclosed 

 by nets, Grey Mullets display much ingenuity in their 

 endeavours to avoid capture, one or more of the number 

 often making its escape by leaping over the corked border 

 of the net into the open sea again, and the whole shoal 

 quickly following suit at the same point like a flock of 

 sheep over a meadow fence. Being acquainted with the 

 proclivities of these Mullets, the Levant and other Mediter- 

 ranean fishermen take the precaution to extend extra 

 netting above the surface of the water, from pieces of cane 

 fastened perpendicularly to the cork line — the escape of the 

 fish in the manner above described being thus effectually 

 debarred. Fine examples of the larger or common Grey 

 Mullet attain to as great a length as two or three feet ; all 

 the species closely resemble each other in colour, their ground 

 tint being a silvery grey, variegated by from six to eight 

 darker steel-blue longitudinal lines along the sides, the 

 head and cheeks usually reflecting a bronze or golden tint. 

 Grey Mullets become remarkably tame when acclimatised 

 in aquaria ; examples introduced by the writer to the 



