POMPTLUS. 125 



shape was so close that no doubt remained of their being the 

 same species, a fact now admitted by all naturalists. 



But this fish was not unknown to ancient observers, although 

 for want of discrimination they fell into that error concerning 

 it which is common to them as concerns many species which 

 possess the same or similar habits. They confounded it with 

 the Pilot Fishes, and the remarks of Oppian are as applicable 

 to one class of these fishes as they are to the other. The 

 Pompilus seeks the society of a ship at sea, and will accompany 

 it through a great extent of ocean, although not in equal 

 numbers with the true Pilot Fish, already described. An indi- 

 vidual of the species now under consideration came with a 

 ship to the harbour of St. Ives, in Cornwall, and while there 

 suflfered itself to be caught with a gaff from a boat alongside. 

 Jago's examples were taken together in a net in the year 1721, 

 at the mouth of the River Looe; and so was another which 

 came into the hands of my late friend Clement Jackson, a 

 skilful naturalist of the same place. It was caught in a floating- 

 net, set for Salmon; and such was the force exerted by this 

 fish, that it carried the net before it over the head-rope, when 

 it fell into the folds and became entangled. An example was 

 taken in a drift-net shot by a boat near Falmouth, in August, 

 1850, and another was caught near Penzance, in February, 

 1857. The example before referred to as caught near Polperro, 

 was taken with a hook baited with a slice (termed a lask) 

 from the side of a Mackarel; but a mussel, without the shell, 

 and a piece of the flesh of the Sea Bream, were found in the 

 stomach, both these substances probably having been snatched 

 from the hooks of fishermen. Jago found oreweed in the 

 stomach of those he examined, and Ruysch says they feed on 

 this, although chiefly on flesh. All the examples we have 

 named were met with in Cornwall, but I have learnt from 

 Joshua Alder, Esq., that this fish has wandered much farther 

 towards the north. An example is reported by him as having 

 been taken at Cullercoats. 



The second specimen I have met with measured thirty-two 

 inches in length, which probably is the greatest size to which 

 it attains; but that from which our description was derived, 

 was in length only fifteen inches, which was exactly the same 

 with Jago's fish. The depth of the body behind the head was 



