THE HORSE-MACKERELS AND THEIR ALLIES. 361 



minute afterwards the monster rolled lazily towards it 

 and engulfed bait, chain, and all, but the hook came 

 away. When such a shark is caught and hauled aboard, 

 both pilots and remoras soon attach themselves, doubtless 

 for the sake of protection, to the ship. The pilot-fish 

 is in colour of a steely blue, having a number of dark 

 bands down the sides, and occasionally one on the tail. 



[The Black Pilot and Derbio have been recorded once 

 each in our waters. The former, also known as the Snij)- 

 nosed mullet or "Rudder-fish," is of American origin, and 

 the solitary British example was found ofi" the Cornish 

 coast in a broken wooden case (!). The Derbio, or 

 Glaucus, is a small green fish.] 



In the Boar-fish we have a remarkable form, rarely ex- 

 ceeding a length of 7 inches, and being laterally flattened 

 Boar-fislior like the more familiar dory. It is very rough- 

 Cuckoo, skinned, to which, as well as to the prominent 

 snout, may be due the trivial name. It is also, I believe, 

 said to grunt on being ca23tured and removed from 

 the water; but here again, as in the case of the scad, I 

 have not been favoured with a ^performance, as we used to 

 net dozens in the little estuary north of Leghorn, and I 

 never heard a sound from them. It is a bright-red fish, 

 the fins being long and spinous, the mouth small and 

 tubular. It occurs chiefly on the south-west coast. 



The John Dory, one of the ugliest and most delicate of 

 British table fishes, is too familiar on the fishmonger's 



slab to need much by way of description. 



The body is flattened, the skin smooth, the 

 dorsal fin tipped with long filaments. The colour is a 

 deep brown, there being also a number of lighter bands 

 and a single black spot with a light rim on either side. 

 These spots are associated by tradition w^ith the finger and 

 thumb of St Peter; hence, according to some etymologists. 



