272 THE PILOT-FISH. 



months. A few days' rapid sailing is nevertheless sufficient to get rid of them how- 

 ever 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 ex- 

 treme agility." 



The BONITO (Pklamys 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 unwhole- 

 some 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 color, 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 a 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 Rochet), 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 seem 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 land. 

 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 watchful- 

 ness 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 other hand, 



