THE PILOT-FISH. 225 
Scomberoids have of skimming the surface of the sea, aud 
springing occasionally into the air. 
Another member of the mackerel family, the Pilot-Fish 
(Naucrates ductor), easily recognised by the three dark-blue 
bands which surround its silvery body, 
will frequently attend a ship during its 
course at sea for weeks or even months 
together, most likely to profit by the 
offal thrown overboard. Regardless Pilot-Fish,—(Naucrates 
of the useful precept, “ avoid bad com- ae 
pany,” it is frequently found attending the white shark, and 
owes its name to its being supposed to act as a trusty guide 
or friendly monitor to that voracious monster, sometimes 
directing it where to find a good meal, and at others warning it 
when to avoid a dangerous bait. At all events, the pilot-fish 
is well rewarded for his attendance by snatching up the morsels 
which are overlooked by his companion, and as he is an ex- 
cellent swimmer, and probably keeps a good look-out, has but 
little reason to fear being snatched up himself. 
“Tt has been observed,” says Yarrell, “that when a shark and 
his pilot were following a vessel, if meat was thrown overboard 
cut into small pieces, and therefore unworthy the shark’s atten- 
tion, the pilot-fish showed his true motive of action by de- 
serting both shark and ship to feed at his leisure on the 
morsels.” 
The family of the anguilliform fishes, characterised by their 
serpent-like bodies, destitute of ventral fins, and generally 
covered by a slippery skin, with, in some of the genera, small 
scales embedded therein, likewise comprises a number of highly 
interesting and useful species, forming many generic groups. 
Its chief representative in our waters is the Common Eel 
‘Anguilla vulgaris), which, though a frequent inhabitant of 
our lakes, ponds, and rivers, may also justly be reckoned among 
the marine fishes ; for the same wonderful instinct which prompts 
the salmon and the sturgeon annually to leave the high seas 
and seek the inland streams for the sake of perpetuating their 
race, forces also the eel to migrate, but his peregrinations are 
of an opposite character, for here the full-grown fishes descend 
the rivers to deposit their spawn in the sea, and the young, 
after having been born in the brackish estuaries, ascend the 
