34 FAMILY SCOMBERIDE^E ; SWORD-FISH, PILOT-FISH. 



15 feet ; and they do not hesitate in attacking very large fishes 

 (the Tunny, for example), 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 uncommon, 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 Scomberidese is characterised by 

 having the rays of the first dorsal 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 



subject of many 

 fictitious state- 

 ments. By the 

 ancients it was re- 

 garded as a sacred 

 fish, from its being 

 supposed to indi- 



FIO. 269.-PILOT-FISH. cate their true di- 



rection to doubtful 



voyagers ; whilst, by sailors of the present 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 in 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. 



559. The family ZEHXE 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 



