CENTRONOTUS. 307 



gives an account of a shoal of tunnies, so vast that 

 the fleet of Alexander the Great, could scarcely 

 maintain its coarse. The ships were arranged in 

 battle array, to force the extraordinary aquatic pha- 

 lanxes to give way to the conqueror of tlie world. 

 The tunny will be recognised by its dark blue 

 back ; silvery sides, and the gray color of the first 

 dorsal fin, and the darker gray of the tail. Its 

 spinous fins have a yellowish tinge. 



GEN. CENTRONOTUS. 



Pilot Fish, — Centronotus Ductor. To mar- 

 iners, this frequent attendant on vessels is well 

 known, and is the theme of many fore-castle tales. 

 It has a light blue colored body, with wide trans- 

 verse bands of a deeper and beautiful shade, four 

 dorsal spines, a forked tail, and varies in length 

 from six to eighteen inches. 



In a recent publication on natural history, it is 

 positively asserted that two of these fishes, some 

 years ago, accompanied a ship from the Mediter- 

 ranean into Falmouth, where they were taken in 

 a nest. This was an unfeeling and ungenerous 

 act, after they had travelled such a distance. 



Sailors are very confident that the pilot fish 

 swims before sharks, to conduct them where to 

 commence a slaughter, but this is altogether gra- 

 tuitous ; but that they are much in their bad com- 



