750 PISCES— DORADO. ..SWORD FISH. 



was long a matter of doubt, but appears now to be an ascertained fact. M. 

 GeofFroy, when near Malta, in 1798, saw two of the pilot fish lead a shark 

 to a piece of bacon, which a seaman had let down by a line and hook. 



THE DORY, OR DORADO. 2 



The form of this fish is very disgusting. Its body is oval, and much 

 compressed at the sides. Its snout is long, and its mouth is wide. The 

 first back fin consists often spiny rays, with long filaments; the second of 

 twenty-four soft rays. The tail is round at the end. The color of the body 

 is olive, varied with light blue and white ; white living, it has the appear- 

 ance of gilding, whence its name Dorle (gilt). It is found in the North 

 6ea, the British channel, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean. 



THE SWORD FISHi 



Is very common in the Mediterranean, and is much esteemed for food by the 

 Sicilians, who consider it as equal to the sturgeon. It is also found on the 

 coasts of America. It grows to a very large size, upwards of twenty feet in 

 length. It is of a long and rounded body, largest near the head, and taper- 

 ing by degrees to the tail. The skin is rough, the back black, and the belly 

 white. It has one fin on the back, running almost its whole length. It 

 nas one pair of fins also at the gills. But the most remarkable part of this 

 fish is the snout, which, in the upper jaw, runs out in the figure of a sword, 

 sometimes to the length of three feet, and is of a substance like a coarse 

 Kind of ivory. The under jaw is much shorter. 



1 Zeus faber, Lin. This genus is characterized by a body oval, compressed ; jaws 

 strongly protractile ; teeth crowded ; spinous portions of the dorsal and anal fins sepa- 

 rated from the others by a deep notch ; scales projecting, and spinous scales at the base 

 of the vertical fins, and between the ventral and anal fins. 



*Xiphias ffladius, Lin. The genus Xiphias has the snout prolonged, resembling the 

 blade of a sword ; strong asperities in the jaws, in the place of teeth ; body elongated 

 rounded, with scarcely perceptible scales or projecting carinje on each side of the tail ; 

 pectoral fins long and pointed ; two or three anterior rays of the dorsal fin spinous ; no 

 ventral fin. 



