GREY MUrj.ET. 
9 
nf 7? • and miliolo}. Of these molluscaj specimens 
la losa three lines in length were the largest, and the 
e la n ia, rom the smallest size to its maximum of little 
01 e t an a line in diameter, the most ahundant. In the 
\r ° ^PS'^iGiens it affords the stomach of one of these 
i u ® ® quite a storehouse to a conchologist. In addition to 
_ ese there were various species of minute Crustacea. The only 
inannnate matter that appeared were fragments of Zostera 
marina and conferva, which were probably taken into the 
stomach on account of the adhering mollusca. To this nutritious 
ood may perhaps be attributed the great size this fish attains 
m Belfast Bay.” Mr. Thompson adds, that in the “Animal 
^ingdom” of Cuvier, Pennant’s figure of the Grey Mullet in 
his “British Zoology,” is referred to as M. capita, but in the 
History of Fishes,” by Cuvier and Valenciennes, it is believed 
o represent ]\I, chalo. In this last work Donovan’s figure of 
the Mullet, pi. 15 , is considered a very good representation of 
. chelo, although Yarrell and Jenyns refer to both figures as 
M. capita. 
I will here add that in the references I have made, as in 
the history given, my opinion respecting the species is the same 
as that of Tarrell and Jenyns, and that our history applies only 
to the identical species we have described and represented. It 
has been remarked by different observers that this fish is 
sometimes, and perhaps often, seen to grope in the soft flooring 
of the bottom, with the help of its very sensitive lips and 
curiously-formed mouth, by which every particle is closely 
examined, and to swallow a mixture of decaying vegetable and 
animal substances, with sand, of the latter of which alone I 
have obtained from a single stomach so much as would fill a 
tablespoon; but no one will suppose that the sand so swallowed 
was a principal object of search. The very minute mollusks 
mentioned by Mr. Thompson would at least be as acceptable 
as the sand, and without doubt much more so; but that this 
Mullet can live and thrive where such food is beyond its 
reach is out of the question. 
No shell or substance beyond the size given by Mr. Thompson 
can pass into the stomach of the Mullet, for, after the close 
sensitive examination it has undergone at the entrance of the 
mouth, it has to be strained through a sifting apparatus in the 
VOL HI. c 
