124 ACANTHOPTERYGII. SCOMBRID^. 



British harbour. Five or six such cases are men- 

 tioned by Mr. Yarrell. On these visits of cour- 

 tesy seems to depend the claim of the species to 

 a place among British Fishes. 



4. Vomerina. A few genera, rather numerous 

 in species, (which amount, according to Prince 

 Bonaparte, to sixty-five), are grouped together 

 here, distinguished by having the body short, very 

 deep, and very thin ; a smooth, satiny skin, desti- 

 tute of any apparent scales ; the rays of the dorsal, 

 anal, and ventrals, often prolonged into slender 

 filaments. The species are chiefly found in the 

 tropical seas, and none are recorded as British, 

 or even European. 



5. Zeina, The form in this group is thin, 

 deep, and short, as in the preceding ; but the 

 mouth is greatly projectile, and furnished with 

 numerous small teeth. The dorsal is single (in 

 most of the genera) and is not preceded by any 

 free spines. There are about forty species, of 

 which three are marked as British. One of these 

 is the John Doree, {Zeus faber, Linn.) eminent 

 in all ages for the flavour of its flesh. The an- 

 cients honoured it with the name of the supreme 

 demon in their mythology, (Zeu?, Jupiter), in 

 token of their estimation of it ; and in modern 

 times, the prince of epicures, Quin, disdained not 

 to make a journey from Bath to Plymouth for 

 the sole purpose of eating it in perfection. Me- 

 dieval superstition assigns other honours to this 

 fish : there is a round spot of black on each side 

 in the middle of its yellow body, which is ac- 

 counted for by the legend which makes the Doree 

 the fish caught by the apostle Peter to pay the 

 tribute shekel, or by the rival story, equally true, 



