208 NATURAL HISTORY [Fishes. 



put up with its horrid appearance, prefer it to others which 

 are more beautiful to the eye. 



GENUS XFI.— THE DOREE. 



Gen. Char.— Body very deep, and compressed sidewise ; very long filaments is- 

 suing from the first dorsal fin ; seven branchiostegous rays. 



Species 1. — TheOpah. 



Opah or King-Fish, Phil. Trans. Abridg. Vol. XI. 879, tab. 5. Piscis maculis 

 aureis aspersus non scriptus, pollices 42 longus. Sib. Scot. tab. Q,Jig. 3. Wal. 

 Disc. Ore. 37. Brit. Zool. JIJ. 201. Brit. Zool. Illus. IF. 76, tab. 91. 

 Jig- 2. 



Mr Wallace, in his Description of Orkney, gives an ac- 

 count of this fish ; and I suppose it was jfrom him Sir Robert 

 Sibbald had it, as the plate in both is the very same, and seems 

 to have been made from the same drawing. 



This Mr Wallace describes was taken in Sanda, in the win- 

 ter 1682 ; and he tells us several had been gotten there before. 



According to the description " It was about an ell in length, 

 " deep-breasted, and narrow to the tail ; the head and fins, 

 " and a stroke down the back, were of a deep blood-colour." 

 -' The rest," says Mr Wallace, " was mouse-coloured, having 

 " several whitish spots on the body." 



