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PLATE XII. 
T\ rote the British Zoology ; the striped sort we know is found on 
several of oUr coasts, and probably on those of Scotland also. 
The Red Surmullet is said to be smaller than the other, and some 
have conjectured, that after a certain age these lines appear. 
Block hints that the male may be that which is striped, and the 
other the female ; Gronovius and some others are of opinion that 
they are merely varieties of each other. Having seen sm.all ones of 
five or six inches in length that were striped, as in the larger sort, 
and having the assurance of the fishermen on the western coast, where 
they are most abundant, that they have no other than the striped 
sort, we cannot assent to the first opinion : the second is equally inad- 
missible, because we have both sexes of them so characterized ; and as 
to the last, it is most probable ; but not having seen the red kind, it 
would be improper to offer any further opinion respecting it. 
If either is it more clearly ascertained which of the two kinds was 
^0 highly valued by the Romans, or whether they made any distinc- 
tion. Both kinds, it is said, are found in the Mediterranean ;^they 
inhabit the Italian shores, and might have had an equal claim to that- 
honour. Or, indeed, since the striped kind is said to be the largest, 
this should have the preference, for those prodigal epicures always 
valued them in proportion to the size. Linnaeus and Gmelin think, 
otherwise, and say it was the Red Mullet ; and Block, who prudently 
forbears to separate the two kinds, tliinks however that it was the 
largest, and consequently the Striped Surmullet. 
The excess to which the Romans carried their extravagance for this 
fish, is scarcely to he credited in our days. From Horace, Juvenal, 
Pliny, and others of the ancients wc learn, that one of six pounds was 
