FISHES. 



243 



November, 1837, when penny postages were unknown, sent 

 to him through the post-office, although nineteen and a half 

 inches long ; it was folded up like a riband, and passed in a 

 franked letter of the ordinary size and legal weight — under an 

 ounce.* A dead specimen of another species was picked up 

 on the beach at Caii-nlough, County Antrim, in 1836, by Dr. 

 J. L. Drummond, author of " Letters to a Young Naturalist," 

 &c., and being transmitted to Belfast, was found to be so per- 

 fectly unique as to require the establishment of a new genus 

 for its reception. Some of the young for whose use this little 

 book is especially written, may yet, in like manner, be so for- 

 timate as to enrich our Fauna with species of which no other 

 specimens are known to be extant, t 



Scomberidce. — The next family contains the Opah, the 

 Dory, and the Sword-fish, all of which have been abeady 

 mentioned (pp. 217, 220). To this belongs the Pilot-fish 

 {Naucratcs ductor, Fig. 207), celebrated for its attendance on 



Fig. 207.— PiLOT-nsn. 



the large Sharks, and supposed by the ancients to have 



pointed out to navigators their desired coui'se, and borne them 



company during their voyage. Here also must be placed the 



Bonito {Tliynnus pelamt/s), one 



of the ruthless pursuers of the 



Flying-fish ; and the Tunny 



{Tlnjnnus vulgaris, Fig. 208), a 



fish of large size, though here 



represented by a very diminutive ^'^e- soa-Tninn-. 



figure. One killed at Inverary weighed 460 lbs., and measured 



• Magazine of Natural History, 1838. 



t It was described and figured by ^Ir. W. Thompson, in the Transactions 

 of the Zoological Society, vol. ii.; the species being named in honour of tlie 

 discoverer, Echiodon JJnimmondii. Another dead specimen was foimd ou 

 the coast of the County Kerry 23rd January-, 1852. 



