THE SURMULLET. 
2 3 $ 
It was cuftomary to put the mullets into glafs vafes, 
that the company might be entertained with the various 
changes of their rich colours as they lay expiring *. It 
was Apicius, that prince of glnttonsf, that firft hit upon 
the ingenious invention of fuffocating them in the exqui- 
fite Carthaginian pickle, and afterwards procuring a rich 
fauce from their livers. 
The Striped Surmullet J. 
1 here are three fpecies of this genus, the red and the 
ftriped, which are fometimes found in the Britijh feas, 
and the king of the furmullets, a fifh peculiar to the 
Mediterranean, and dellitute of the two cirri which lianp 
from the chin of the other fpecies. The ftriped furmullet 
is about fourteen inches in length, and weighs about two 
pounds and an half. The body is thick; the fnout blunt, 
and from the lower fide of it hangs two beards, about an 
inch and an half long. The fins are of a beautiful red, 
and yellow ; the colours of the body vary in their hues, 
into a thoufand different Ihades, while the animal is dying. 
* \ itrns ollis incluli offeruntur, et obferratur morientium color, quert* 
8 multas mutationcs lu&ante fpiritu vertit. Seneca, Nat. cyusft. Jib. 3, 
f Nepotum omnium altiflimus gorges. Pliny, lib. 1. c. 48. 
i Mullns major, Will. Mullus Suimuletus, I,in. Syft. 
