CARANGID^E. 129 



over with phosphorus. Now this phosphorus is considered by most naturalists 

 to be animalcules, and if so, it may reasonably be presumed that the pilot-fishes 

 live on them, for they are frequently seen clinging to the sides of the shark." 

 Dr. Meyer considers it probable that the pilot-fish feeds on the shark's excrements, 

 for which purpose it keeps it company, and is solely acted upon by selfish views. 

 Couch tells us that in the solitary instance in which he had learnt that the 

 pilot-fish had been found when alone at a considerable distance from any floating 

 substance or harbour it seemed to be bewitched, dashed about close to the shore, 

 and allowed itself to be captured by the hand. The probabilities are that the 

 example was ill. They have not been observed accompanying sharks off the 

 British coast. 



Means of capture. One has been taken with a hook and line. On vessels 

 arriving at their port these fish have been secured with but little difficulty. 

 Some of those obtained off the British coasts have been captured in mackerel nets. 



Baits. The stomach has been found fall of small fish, and one example has 

 been recorded which was taken on a baited hook. 



Breeding. As numerous fry are captured in the open sea it does not seem 

 improbable that the spawn floats and is hatched there. I have an example of the 

 young from the Andaman Islands taken close in shore. 



As food. Mr. Cornish states that he foand one he ate to resemble a dry 

 mackerel, a comparison which accords with my experience in the East. 



Habitat. Extending from the British Isles through the Atlantic to temperate 

 and tropical seas. Rare in the British Channel, it is found throughout the 

 Mediterranean : at Messina many are captured during the autumn, and although 

 said to be rare at Marseilles, it is plentiful at Nice, especially about September. 

 It is occasionally taken off the coast of America. 



In 1818, one was taken in Dartmouth Harbour: in 1831, the " Peru " put into 

 Plymouth from Alexandria, having been out eighty-two days, during the last 

 eighty of which she had been accompanied by two of these fishes, which in 

 Catwater, where the vessel anchored, became so tame as to be easily 

 captured, when they were eaten and declared to be excellent. In October, 

 1833, nearly one hundred came with a vessel from Sicily into Catwater, but 

 all escaped capture. In 1841, Dr. Shorter recorded one from Hastings, and 

 Yarrell obtained another, but where it was taken is not mentioned. One was 

 captured off the Isle of Wight in 1853, and on January 13th, 1855, a boy 

 took three at Falmouth. A shoal made its appearance, observes Mr. Cocks, at 

 the Customs' House Pier at Falmouth, October 31st, 1856, and more than three 

 dozens were caught in nets, baskets, &c, by people on the beach. He observed 

 that he had preserved specimens of this fish every year of his residence in the 

 neighbourhood. Mr. Cornish (Zool. p. 9115) recorded an example taken at 

 Penzance in June 8th, and another on the 11th October, 1868 : Buckland 

 received one taken off Folkestone in a mackerel net. June 27tk, 1873, two were 

 taken in mackerel nets about fifteen miles south-west of Penzance, consequently 

 in the deep sea, and were supposed to have followed some vessel (Cornish, Zooi. 

 p. 3653). June, 1874, Mr. Cornish (Zool. p. 4080) recorded one from Penzance, 

 and on November 9th, two were taken at Plymouth by a sailor in the Great 

 Western Docks (Gatcombe, Zool. p. 4266) : and one (Zool. p. 184), 

 February 14th, 1877, in a herring net off Plymouth. Mr. Lee obtained one in 

 December at Margate, a sailor seeing it basking hit it with a boat's stretcher, and 

 brought it ashore. R. Couch says they are occasionally taken in Mount's Bay, 

 but their presence can always be traced to the arrival of some foreign vessel. 

 " Many years since I saw a specimen freshly caught on the Suffolk coast, 

 and sent for preservation to the late Mr. J. Tims, of Norwich, in whose house 

 it was unfortunately destroyed by a fire on the premises." (Gurney, in Lowe's 

 Catal. of the Fishes of Norfolk.) Edward records a fine example in Banff shiie, 

 taken in the bay. In Ireland one was obtained in 1841 from Cookhaven, in tno 

 County of Cork (Dr. Harvey). 



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