THE CAVALLY AND OTHER CARANGOIDS. 235 



rapid swimmers, and are widely distributed throut,diout all temperate and 

 trojtical waters. The name Dolphin is unfortunately applied, this being 



THE DOLPHIN*. 



the peculiar property of a group of small cetaceans. They are often 

 caught by sailors at sea, and are considered most excellent food. It is an 

 almost universal custom before eating them to test the flesh by putting a 

 piece of sih'er into the vessel in which they have been cooked, it being a 

 common belief that if the flesh is poisonous the silver will turn dark. 

 Narratives of ocean voyages abound in descriptions of the beautiful colors 

 of the Dolphin and the brilliant, changes of hue exhibited by the dving 

 fish, but none so eloquent as that in ISIontgomery's " Pelican Island." 



•' A shoal of dolphins, tumbling in wild glee. 

 Glowed with such orient tints, they might have been 

 The rainbow's offspring, where it met the ocean." 



There are in the Atlantic two species of Dolphins, though the num- 

 ber was, until lately, supposed to be very much greater. But one of these, 

 Coryphcena hippiirits, is definitely known from our shores. 



The young, less than two feet in length, are beautifully marked witli 

 numerous small circular spots, and have, until lately, been considered by 

 many writers to belong to a distinct genus and species. Dolphins are 

 al)undant also, it is said, in the Gulf of Mexico. 



The Pilot-fish, Naucrates ductor, though of little or no economic im- 

 portance, deserves passing mention, since it is so frequently referred to in 

 literature. It is occasionally taken on our coast. Capt. Atwood 

 mentions a specimen which was taken in a mackerel net in Provincetown 

 Harbor, in October, 1S5S. A whale-ship had come in a few days before, 

 and he supposes that the Pilot-fish had followed it into the harbor. 



