MULLETS* 
155 
i! oily substances floating on the sea, or to the 
I softer parts of aquatic vegetation. The ancients 
considered it as the most innocent of fishes, and 
i this opinion has been confirmed by that of one of 
f our best ichthyologists, Mr. Couch. Yet the 
! observations of other naturalists reveal a very 
different truth. Mr. W. Thompson, the able 
I historian of Irish zoology, has remarked, after 
I an examination of many individuals of the spe- 
j cies common in Belfast Bay (apparently Mugil 
! chelo)^ that they presented many hundred-fold 
I greater destruction of animal life than he had 
ever witnessed on a similar inspection of the food 
of any bird or fish. From the stomach of a single 
individual he took as many univalve and bivalve 
' moUusca as would fill a large sized breakfast cup ; 
' so that one of these stomachs might justly be 
* regarded as quite a store-house to a concholo- 
; gist.^ 
i Genus Mugil. (Linn.) 
I The characters already enumerated as distin- 
( guishing the Family may be considered as those 
of this genus: the head is covered on the top 
with hard bony plates, on the sides with compact 
scales, which conceal the divisions of the gill- 
covers : the pectorals are pointed ; the sides of 
the tail are not armed with projecting ridges, 
j Two species are common on the coasts of these 
I islands, the Common Grey Mullet {Mugil capito, 
I Cuv.) and the Thick-lipped Mullet {M. chelo^ 
' Cuv.) They very closely resemble each other, 
* but are distinguished by small anatomical pecu- 
I * Anu. and Mag. of Nat, Hist. July, 1888 . 
