272 THE PILOT-FISH. 



A few days' rapid sailing is nevertheless sufficient to get rid of them, however numerous 

 they may be ; for they seldom pay more than very transient visits to vessels making a 

 quick passage. When the ship is sailing with a fresh breeze, they swim pertinaciously by 

 her side and take the hook greedily ; but should she be lying motionless or becalmed, they 

 go off to some distance in search of prey, and cannot be prevailed upon to take the most 

 tempting bait that the sailor can devise. 



It is probably as a protection from their chief enemy, the sword-fish, that they seek the 

 society of a ship. I am not aware that the shark is also their enemy, but they seemed to 

 have an instinctive dread of this large fish, and, when it approached the ship, would follow 

 it in shoals, and annoy it in the same manner as the smaller birds may be seen to annoy 

 those of a larger and predaceous kind, as the hawk or owl. 



They are very voracious and miscellaneous feeders. Flying fish, calamars, and small 

 shoal-fish are their more natural food, though they do not refuse the animal offal from a 

 ship. Among other food contained in their maw, we have found small ostracians (i.e. trunk- 

 fish), file-fish, sucking-fish, janthina shells, and pelagic crabs in one instance a small 

 bonita, and in a second a dolphin, eight inches long, and a paper nautilus shell, containing 

 its sepia tenant. 



It was often amusing to watch an Albacore pursuing a flying fish, and to mark the 

 precision with which it swam beneath the feeble aeronaut, keeping him steadily in view, 

 and preparing to seize him at the moment of his descent. But this the flying fish would 

 often elude by instantaneously renewing his leap, and not unfrequently escaped by extreme 

 agility." 



The BONITO (Pelamys sarda) is a very pretty and common species that is found in the 

 Mediterranean and many parts of the Atlantic. 



This is a smaller species than the albacore, not exceeding two feet and a half in length. 

 The flesh of this fish is eaten both fresh and when pickled, but in a fresh state is not held 

 in very high estimation. At some seasons, it appears to contract an unwholesome quality, 

 which is injurious to certain constitutions, causing rather a painful rash to break out on 

 the face and body, though others can eat it with impunity. The flesh is very red in colour, 

 and looks very like butcher's meat. 



Like the albacore, the Bonito is a determined foe of that much persecuted creature the 

 flying fish, and is often taken by means of u hook dressed with feathers so as to resemble 

 its natural prey. It is a truly beautiful species, deserving fully the popular name of 

 Bonito, which may be freely translated as Little Beauty. The back is deep indigo blue, 

 mottled with a lighter shade of the same hue, and when young a number of dark streaks 

 are drawn across the back. The abdomen is silvery white, and the cheeks and gill-covers 

 are of the same brilliant hue. 



ANOTHER species, the STRIPED BONITO (Auxis RocJiei), inhabits the same localities, 

 and is nearly as plentiful as the preceding fish. It may readily be known from the plain 

 Bonito by the four dark lines which extend along each side of the abdomen and end at 

 the tail. 



THE prettily marked PiLOT-FiSH is frequently seen off the British coasts, but seems to 

 be rather shy, and is not very often captured. 



This little fish has long been supposed to act the part of the shark's provider, and to 

 perform in the ocean the same actions that were once attributed to the jackal on laud. 

 Many modern writers, however, deny the truth of the statement, by saying that the Pilot- 

 fish only follows the shark for the sake of the scraps that the larger fish is likely to 

 leave, and that it would probably be snapped up by the shark but for its watchfulness 

 and agility. 



As is usual in such a disputation, the evidence is very conflicting, and many accounts 

 have been published tending to throw discredit on the one side or the other, according to 

 the particular circumstances under which the observations were made. One well-known 

 naturalist, for example, mentions an instance where a shark was directed towards 

 a baited hook by two Pilot-fish that accompanied him ; but, on the othe" hand, another 



