THE THICK-LIPPED GREY MULLET. 
101 
species on the eastern shores of Scotland, where we believe his grey mullet is 
not known at all, or is at least far from common. At the mouths of rivers the 
former is taken in considerable numbers in autumn.’ Yol. i. p. 390. Every 
mullet that I have had the means of examining at Belfast, since first giving at- 
tention to them in March, 1835, was of this species, as were likewise the only 
two individuals that I have seen from the southern cqast of Ireland. These are 
in the collection of Dr. It. Ball, of Dublin, and were taken at Youghal in the 
County of Cork. 
“As information on the history of this species, at least as distinguished from 
others, is very scanty in all the British and continental works I have had the op- 
portunity of consulting, I have thought proper to enter into the following detail. 
“ Notwithstanding the great increase of shipping of late years at Belfast, the 
mullet is as plentiful in the bay as it was ever known to be by the few persons 
engaged in its capture. By much the greater number are taken here in trammel 
or set-nets, but at low water the sweep or draught-net is used in the gullets,* 
and also, in addition to the former kind, is employed in fishing for them within 
the flow of the tide in the river Lagan. They are generally sought for from 
about the middle of March until the beginning of October, and are occasionally 
taken before and after these periods. They probably never migrate far, as in 
two different years, in the month of January, dead individuals were washed 
ashore in the bay. The fishers are, for their own sake, entirely guided by the 
weather, which must be moderate, it being by night that the mullet is taken in 
the greatest numbers, as, by reason of the darkness, they cannot, by leaping over 
it, so well avoid the fatal net, though even then they occasionally so escape. 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 it ; having surmounted the meshy barrier, they sometimes 
take two or three additional leaps, and skim the surface beautifully before again 
subsiding beneath it. In the stillness of the night it is said that by leaping and 
plunging about they make the water seem quite alive. In the bright sunny 
days of summer, which they evidently much enjoy, a w'hole shoal of mullet 
occasionally exhibit their dorsal fins above the surface of the water, and when 
there are neither nets nor other objects to obstruct them, may, in playfulness, 
be seen springing a few feet into the air. This generally occurs at high water, 
when they appear to be more intent on roving about than feeding, and pene- 
trate as far up the river as the tidal wave will bear them ; at such times they 
have frequently been captured in May’s dock, within the town of Belfast. 
“ Of their time of spawning I cannot speak with certainty, nor have any indi- 
viduals that came under my observation from March to September been in the 
least degree spent by it, all being firm and well-formed fish. When, on the 3rd 
of January, 1835, in search of marine productions outside the entrance to 
Strangford Lough, County Down, and accompanied by Mr. Hyndman, a spe- 
cimen of this mullet, under 2 inches in length, was captured, and in the middle 
of September I have seen others of 9 inches in length. 
“ They are chiefly found in the most oozy parts of the bay, and where the grass- 
wrack ( Zostera marina ) is abundant. In search of food they make consider- 
able excavations, which the fishers distinguish by the name of mullet-holes. f 
******** 
“ The species of fish frequenting the coasts of Down'and Antrim may be stated, 
in general terms, commonly to attain the extreme size with their kindred in the 
Mediterranean, and the M. Chelo proves not an exception, as specimens taken 
* These are narrow and often deep channels of water intersecting the banks 
over which the tide flows. In using the draught-net here, the smaller fish in 
leaping over it sometimes alight on the banks — at this time dry — to their de- 
struction. 
f Pennant observes, that the grey mullet “ keep rooting like hogs in the sand 
or mud, leaving their traces in form of large round holes.” — Brit . Zool , , vol, iii, 
p. 437, ed. 1812. 
