The mullet feed on the bottom in quiet water, swimming head downward. The food is sifted over in the mouth, the mud rejected, and the plants, chiefly microscopic, retained. Mr. Silas Stearns compares a school of mullets to barnyard fowls feeding together. When a fish finds a rich spot the others flock about it as chickens do. The pharyngeals form a sort of filter, stopping the sand and mud, the coarse parts being ejected through the mouth. Dr. Günther thus describes this apparatus: "The upper pharyngeals have a rather irregular form: they are slightly arched, the convexity being directed toward the pharyngeal cavity, tapering anteriorly and broad posteriorly. They are coated with a thick, soft membrane, which reaches far beyond the margin of the bone and is studded all over with minute horny cilia. Each branchial arch is provided with a series of long gill-rakers, which are laterally bent downward, each series closely fitting to the sides of the adjoining arch; they constitute together a sieve admirably adapted to permit a transit for the water, retaining at the same time every solid substance in the cavity of the pharynx." The young mullet feed in schools and often swim with the head at the surface of the water. [Illustration: FIG. 174.—Striped Mullet, _Mugil cephalus_ (L.). Wood's Hole, Mass. ] We are not able to distinguish from the common striped mullet of Europe and America the mullet of Hawaii, the famous Ama-ama, the most valued of Hawaiian fishes. This species is reared in mullet ponds, made by extending a stone wall across an arm of the sea. Through openings in the wall the young mullet enter, and in its protection they grow very fat on the abundant algæ and other vegetation. They thus become the most plentiful and most esteemed of the market fishes of Honolulu. The Awa (_Chanos_) and the Awa-awa (_Elops_) also enter these ponds and are reared with the mullet, being similarly but less valued. Unfortunately the kaku, or small barracuda (_Sphyræna helleri_), also enters with these helpless fishes and destroys many of the smaller individuals. Another striped species, also very similar to _Mugil cephalus_ in appearance and value, in fact indistinguishable from the Hawaiian mullet, abounds in Japan and India.