PILOT-FISH. FAMILY ZENID.E. 55 



transfixing them with their powerful spear. Instances are on 

 record, in which even Men have been thus destroyed ; and it has 

 not unfrequently happened that a Sword-fish has struck a ship, 

 and has driven its sharp weapon through the planking. In the 

 Mediterranean, where one species of Sword-fish is not uncom- 

 mon, it is regularly pursued by the fishermen ; and its flesh is 

 much esteemed in some places as an article of food. It is seldom 

 seen, however, in large numbers together. A third group of the 

 Scomberidse is characterised by having the rays of the first dor- 

 sal fin not connected, but existing as separate spines. Of this 

 group we shall only stop to notice the Pilot-fish; which has been, 



from very ancient 

 times, the sub- 

 ject of many ficti- 

 tious statements. 

 By the ancients it 

 was regarded as 

 a sacred fish, from 



no 377. PILOT-FISH. its being supposed 



to indicate their 



true direction to doubtful voyagers ; whilst by sailors of the pre- 

 sent day it is commonly regarded as a guide to the Shark in its 

 pursuit of prey, and is said to tempt it to take the bait which 

 has been thrown out for its capture. Certain it is, however, 

 that the Pilot-fish will often follow the wake of ships for many 

 hundred miles ; thus an instance has been known, in which a 

 vessel was accompanied by two of this species, during its whole 

 voyage from Alexandria to Plymouth, which occupied 87 days. 

 The common Pilot-fish of the Mediterranean and Atlantic does 

 not much exceed a foot in length ; but there is a species on the 

 South American coast, which occasionally attains eight or nine 

 times those dimensions. 



616. The family ZENID^E strongly resembles the preceding; 

 but differs from it in the high and compressed form of the body. 

 Many of the species composing it are remarkable for the fila- 

 mentous prolongations of their fins. This is the case with one of 

 the types of the family, the Zeus or Dory, the peculiar form and 



