212 THE PICKED DOG-FISH. 



in length the body from the tip of the snout to the base of the tail. The lower lobe is 

 quite short, and in no way conspicuous. 



This fish is appropriately called the Thresher on account of its habit of using its long 

 and flexible tail after the fashion of a quarter-staff, and dealing the most tremendous 

 blows on or near any object that may excite its ire. Sometimes it seems to employ its 

 tail in playing off a practical joke or frightening away dolphins or other creatures that 

 are disporting themselves in apparent security. The following short account by Captain 

 Crow will give a good idea of the powers of this tremendous weapon when wielded by 

 the iron muscles of the Thresher : 



" One morning during a calm, when near the Hebrides, all hands were called up at 

 three A. M. to witness a battle between several of the fish called Threshers or Fox Sharks 

 and some swordfish on the one side and an enormous whale on the other. It was in the 

 middle of summer, and the weather being clear and the fish close to the vessel, we 

 had a fine opportunity of witnessing the contest. As soon as the whale's back appeared 

 above the water, the Thresher springing several yards into the air, descended with great 

 violence upon the object of their rancor, and inflicted upon him the most severe slaps 

 with their long tails, the sounds of which resembled the reports of muskets fired at a 

 distance. 



The swordfish in their turn attacked the distressed whale, striking from below, and 

 thus beset on all sides, and wounded, where the poor creature appeared, the water 

 around him was dyed with blood. In this manner they continued tormenting and 

 wounding him for many hours, until we lost sight of him, and I have no doubt that 

 they in the end completed his destruction." This strange alliance of two different fish 

 against a marine mammal is a truly curious circumstance, and may have a deeper 

 meaning than appears on the surface. 



The food of the Thresher consists mostly of fish, and in the stomach of one of these 

 creatures taken off the coast of Cornwall were found a quantity of young herrings. The 

 color of the Thresher is dark slaty blue above, and the same color, but mottled with 

 white, below. 



AMONG the British Sharks, the PICKED DOG-FISH deserves notice, on account of the 

 curious weapons from which it derives its name. 



In front of each dorsal fin is placed a strong and sharply pointed spine, or pike, which 

 has caused the fish to receive its popular name in most parts of the coast. The word 

 is a dissyllable, and pronounced Pick-ed. On some of our shores it is called the BONE 

 DOG, and in the Orkneys it is known by the name of the HOE. 



These spines form aggressive weapons of a rather formidable character, the fish 

 having the capability of directing a blow with wonderful accuracy. Mr. Couch says, 

 that he has known the Picked Dog-fish able to pierce a finger if laid on its head, and 

 never to miss its aim. When about to strike, it bends its body like a bow, and suddenly 

 lashes out in the intended direction. It is a very common species, especially during 

 the herring season, as it follows the shoals of those fish for the purpose of feeding on 

 them. Even the tiny, quarter-grown young, not half the size of their intended prey, 

 instinctively follow the herrings, though it is manifestly impossible that they should be 

 able to eat them. 



The Picked Dog-fish is destructive to the fishing trade, not only on account of its 

 large appetite and the number of fish it consumes, but because it cuts the hooks away 

 from the lines with its sharp teeth. As, moreover, it is extremely plentiful, some twenty 

 thousand having been captured at one haul of a seine net, the destruction which it causes 

 can be readily imagined. Sometimes this fish assembles in large shoals, and then the 

 fishermen avenge themselves of their injuries, by shooting their nets around them, and 

 capturing them by boats' loads at a time. Their flesh is tolerably good, a useful oil is 

 obtained plentifully from the liver, while the refuse portions are most valuable as manure, 

 and are strewed in unfragrant richness over the fields, warning the nostrils at a con- 

 siderable distance that the next year's crop is likely to be successful, and that a nearer 

 approach is undesirable except to the farmer and the entomologist. 



