308 SCOMBEROIDES. 



pany, is very true, but then it may be with the 

 expectation of nibbling at the remnants of the 

 feast. 



With the most determined perseverance, they 

 will keep within a few feet of the hull of a ship, 

 night and day, for weeks together, as though they 

 were actually on business. Whether this arises 

 from a feeling of safety, while in company with a 

 vessel, a love of wandering, or a hope of plunder, 

 cannot be determined. 



GEN. ZEUS. 



Common Dory, — Zeus Faber, Three spe- 

 cies, the hair-finned, rostrated, and bristly, zeus 

 capillaris, rostratus et setapinnis, are known in 

 the waters about Long Island Sound, New York, 

 but the common dory is the only one of the fami- 

 ly which has been detected in Boston Bay, so far 

 as known to us. It is a thin, broad fish, fashion- 

 ed somewhat like the fresh water bream, with 

 sloping head, and a body of a yellowish color, 

 having a black patch each side, large as the thumb 

 nail. From the middle of the back over the 

 shoulders, long, slender, thread-like spines, three 

 or four inches long, are given off, which, when the 

 fish swims fast, are laid nearly flat. Farther back 

 little spikes of bone are presented above the skin, 

 and at the commencement of the dorsal spine are 



