PILOT FISH. Ill 



similai' to the one now related. — (Griffith's Cuvicr, p. 637.) 

 The Blue Shark is in the summer a common fish in the 

 west of England, but in no instance has the Pilot Fish been 

 seen to accompany it there. 



The example from which principally our description is drawn, 

 was of more than the usual size; its length being fifteen inches 

 and a quarter, and its girth eight inches, at the front of the 

 dorsal fin. The general form is round and plump; scales on 

 the body small, Avith marks resembling scales on the first gill- 

 cover; the hinder gill-cover regularly but slightly striated. 

 Forehead short and rounded; under jaw a little the longer; 

 teeth numerous, slender, thickly set, with a vacancy at the 

 symphysis. The eye prominent, and in one instance one eye 

 differed from the other, both in size and colour. Lateral line 

 but slightly bent, although in two other examples this line 

 passed off high at first, and became bent down opposite the 

 origin of the dorsal fin, ending in an elevated ridge close to 

 the tail; a deep notch above and below the root of the caudal 

 fin. Dorsal fin single, beginning at the middle of the body, 

 more elevated at its origin, but lower in its progress; in front 

 of it a ridge bearing spines, three in number, but probably a 

 fourth hid in the skin; and in another example there were five 

 spines, the first of them concealed. The anal fin begins opposite 

 about the middle of the dorsal; and in front of it a single 

 spine, but in a smaller specimen two spines. A small mark of 

 a corset near the pectoral fin, which fin is pointed, round below; 

 ventrals long and wide; tail forked. Colour blue, of different 

 degrees of intensity in different examples — from brilliant sky 

 blue with green tints, to very dark; white below, the body 

 encircled with five deep blue bands. Caudal fin above and 

 below tipped with white, as also the first rays of the dorsal 

 and anal fins. The dorsal fin has twenty-nine rays, the anal 

 eighteen, pectoral sixteen, ventral five, caudal twenty-one, besides 

 fifteen false ravs above and below. 



