332 
SCANDINAVIAN FISH E S . 
obstruction in a higher degree than many other fishes, 
for this habit of leaping over the obstacle may mislead 
them no less than other fishes. “In the port of Lose, 
in Cornwall,” says Couch, “there is a saltwater mill 
pool of thirteen acres that is enclosed on the side of 
the river by an embankment, and into which the tide 
flows through flood-gates that afford a ready passage 
for fish to the space within. When the tide begins to 
ebb the gates close of themselves, but even before this 
lias happened the Mullets which have entered have been 
known to pass along the enclosed circuit within the 
bank, as if seeking the means of deliverance, and, 
finding no outlet, they have thrown themselves on the 
bank on the side to their own destruction. ’ 
Aristotle quotes the Gray Mullets as the only 
representatives of their class “that refused to eat flesh;” 
and after his time these fishes were generally famed, 
and by Ovid and Oppian celebrated in song, for their 
peaceable disposition and other social virtues, as well 
as for their sagacity in avoiding any lure. For all this 
they are by no means vegetarians, and destroy quite 
as many lives as other fishes. “From a single stomach 
of the Thicklipped Gray Mullet,” says Thompson (1. c.), 
“I have obtained what would fill a large-sized breakfast 
cup of the following species of bivalve and univalve 
mollusca (which had been taken alive) — Mytilus edulis , 
Modiola papuana (of these very small specimens), Kellia 
rubra , Skenea depressa , Littorina retusa, Rissoa labiosa 
and II. parva , Serpulce and Miliolce. Of these mollusca, 
specimens of Rissoa labiosa , three lines in length, were 
the largest, and the Kellia rubra , from the smallest size 
% 
to its maximum of little more than a, line diameter, 
the most abundant. In the profusion of specimens it 
affords, the stomach of one of these mullets is quite a 
store house to a conch ologist. In addition to these 
were various species of minute Crustacea. The only 
inanimate matter that appeared, were fragments of Zo- 
ster a marina and Confervas, which were probably taken 
into the stomach on account of the adhering mollusca.” 
It is probably for this same reason that the Gray Mul- 
lets follow vessels into harbour, and haunt the algae 
attached to the vessel’s bottom. At certain seasons of 
the year at least, the Gray Mullets freely take a bait. 
In Blanchere’s work" Sa vigny gives a description of 
this fishery, as it is carried on on the French side of the 
Channel, near Dieppe. The bait is composed chiefly of 
a Nouv. Diet. Gen. d. Peches , article Mulct. 
b Jordan and Swain, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. VII (1884), 
Annelids, Nereids of the kind we may often see crawl- 
ing among the roots of seaweed or on oyster-shells 
etc. When the shoal of Mullets approaches along the 
coast or roves outside the quays or flood-gates of the 
harbours, in August and September in particular, a 
busy fishery is pursued on land and in boats. The 
active fishes arc often taken without biting, the hook 
catching in the belly or tail or some other part of the 
body. The fishermen call these catches stolen fish (vole), 
and know the bite by its uncommon strength, at least 
three times that of an ordinary bite. These occurrences 
explain the old myth that the Mullet first takes the 
precaution of striking the bait, with its tail (Ovid). In 
other places a bait of dough or something similar is used. 
The most usual and most productive fishery, how- 
ever, is carried on with seine and net. The cautious- 
ness of the Mullets and their leaping-powers necessitate 
the use of special tackle, as for instance trammels, nets 
with a double head-line or back floating at the surface 
etc. In some places it is customary to spread straw 
in front of the seine, it being supposed that the fish 
dare not leap between the straws. 
The largest catches of Mullets are made, to the 
best of our knowledge, in the Mediterranean and the 
Gulf of Mexico and on the Atlantic coast of Florida, 
In recent times it has been supposed 6 that the species 
which is commonest on both sides of America (the Mu- 
gil albula of Linn,eus), is identical with the species 
most important in the Mediterranean, Mugil cephalus, 
which is foreign to the Scandinavian fauna, but of which 
we have the fullest information. On the east coast of 
Florida, according to Brown-Goode (1. c.), we may 
distinguish between “three periods of schooling or se- 
parate runs of Mullet. The “June Mullet" average 
about five to the pound; the “Fat Mullet,” which are 
taken from August 20 to October 1, weigh about two 
pounds; these have, the fishermen say, a, “roe of fat” 
on each side as thick as a man’s thumb. The “Roe 
Mullet” weigh about two and a half pounds, and are 
caught in November and until Christmas. Between the 
seasons of the “Fat Mullet” and “Roe Mullet” there is 
an intermission of two or three Aveeks in the fishing.” 
Fishes of a greater weight than 3 kgm, are exceptional, 
though specimens 58 cm. long and 5 kgm. in Aveight 
are on record. In this genus, hoAvever, the largest 
fishes a, re by no means the most highly esteemed. 
p. 263. 
