8 
OREY MULLET. 
which he mentions immediately after them, and against which they 
were believed to feel a perpetual antipathy. The charge of 
imbecility brought against this fish by Pliny, as shewn by the 
fact that it hides its head for concealment when alarmed, and 
then acts as if persuaded that its whole body was concealed, 
is, as Cuvier has remarked the opposite to what we know of 
the character of these fishes; of which the vigilance, when 
exposed to observation, is very great, although this is accom- 
panied with little appearance that might lead us to suspect its 
existence. 
In the desire for food, which is a predominant appetite in 
the generality of fishes, the Mullet appears to shew itself 
fastidious; but this appearance arises from the fact that from 
natural causes its range of choice is limited, and of no other 
kind of fish can.it be so safely affirmed that it rarely selects 
anything for subsistence that is endued with life. Such also 
was the opinion of Oppian: — 
“Mullets, unlike the rest, are just and mild. 
No fish they harm, by them no seas are spoil’d; 
Not on their own nor different kinds they prey. 
But equal laws of common right obey. 
Undreaded they with guiltless pleasure feed 
Ou fattening slime, or bite the sea-grown weed. 
Each licks his mate ” 
It must be confessed, indeed, that this last particular is not 
literally true, for the Mullet will devour a worm when presented 
to it, and it is even fished for successfully with a fly; but 
from Mr. Thompson’s account of the habits of the Mullet, as 
he described them in his “Natural History of Ireland,” vol. iv, 
some doubts may be felt whether he speaks of the same species. 
He says: — “The contents of the stomachs I have examined at 
various seasons, presented (from the minute size of the objects,) 
many hundred-fold greater destruction of animal life than I have 
ever witnessed on a similar inspection of the food of any bird 
or fish. From a single stomach I have obtained what would fill 
a large-sized breakfast-cup, of the follo^ving species of bivalve 
and univalve mollusca, which had been taken alive, — Mytilus 
edulis, Modiola papuana, (of these very small individuals,) 
Kellia rubra, SJfenea depressa, Littorina return, Missoa labiosa. 
