418 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



said lately to have diminished very considerably its numbers 

 (Dunn/.). The young, called "chad," are often abundant in 

 the coves, and take bait very freely in the summer and autumn. 

 Spanish Bream (Pagellus bogaraveo, Brunn.) is now much scarcer 

 than formerly (Dunn /. and Bice), but single specimens are 

 still frequently taken with baited hooks along the south coast. 

 During the last eight years examples have been identified from 

 Polperro, Mevagissey, Percuil Biver, Cadgwith and Mousehole, 

 and several others have been reported. Pagellus oivenii Giinther, 

 and P. acarne, Cuv. et Val., have each been recorded once from 

 the county (Day). The Pandora, or King of the Breams (P. 

 erythrinus, L.), is probably common, but is generally confused 

 with other Breams. It was plentiful in Mount's Bay in 1906, 

 and several were taken at Cadgwith in 1907. Specimens have 

 also been identified from the Edges, Polperro, from Gorran, and 

 from the Manacles. Couch's Sea Bream (Pagrus orphus, Risso) 

 is represented in the British fauna by a single specimen taken 

 near Polperro in 1842 (Day). The Gilt-head (P. auratus, L.) is 

 another rare accidental visitor, last recorded in 1870. 



The Bed Mullet, or Surmullet {Mullus barbatus var. sur- 

 muletus, L.), is locally common along the south coast, but scarce 

 on the north. Matthias Dunn used to say that it very greatly 

 diminished in numbers after the wet, sunless year of 1879, and 

 was never again so plentiful. In March it is taken by the 

 trawlers fifteen to twenty miles out at sea, but by July it comes 

 closer inshore, and is then taken chiefly by ground- seines, but 

 occasionally by trammels and set nets. It appears to feed by 

 preference where rocks and rocky ledges rise out of sand, and so 

 close to the rocks themselves that on a highly favoured spot 

 near St. Mawes, where thousands are taken every year, the boat 

 has literally to scrape against the rock to be successful. Another 

 favourite ground near Falmouth is a narrow inshore lane of 

 sand, with shallow rocks inside and bigger rocks to seaward, 

 that stretches from off Killigerran Head towards the Gull Bock 

 beyond Portscatho. Near Mevagissey Matthias Dunn would 

 occasionally take as many as six hundred in a day, and in season 

 it is still plentiful on at least two very limited areas there. It 

 is taken regularly and often in quantity off the mouth of the 

 Helford River, and, with trammels, in the estuary itself. In the 



