STROMATEIDS AND CORYPHALNAS. 367 



ten, and that of the tail fourteen, form the leading features by which the small 

 family of the dories are distinguished from the other members of the group under 

 consideration. The body may be invested either with small scales or bony plates, 

 or may be devoid of both. The eyes are lateral, and the teeth conical and small. 

 There is no connection between the preopercular and the orbit ; the gill-opening is 

 wide, and the pectoral fins are thoracic in position. The John Dory (Zeus faber), 

 which gives the name to the family, and is said to derive its own title from a 

 corruption of a foreign equivalent of " gilded cock," represents a genus with few 

 species, characterised by a series of bony plates at the base of the dorsal and anal 

 fins, and another on the under surface ; the anal having four spines. The eight or 

 nine spines of the first dorsal fin, which is not much shorter than the second, are 

 produced into long slender filaments ; and there are but few or no scales. The 

 genus ranges over the Mediterranean, the eastern coasts of the temperate zones of 

 the Atlantic, and the Australian and Japanese seas ; while in a fossil state it occurs 

 in the Miocene deposits of Sicily. An exceedingly ugly and ill-favoured creature, 

 with a huge protruding mouth, the common dory is olive-brown tinged with yellow 

 in colour, showing blue and metallic reflections in certain lights. The sides bear a 

 large black spot, surrounded by a white ring ; a similar mark occurring in some of 

 the other species. A somewhat migratory fish on the British coasts, the dory has 

 been long esteemed by epicures, and it is stated that its flesh is better on the second 

 than on the first day. Couch writes that " when the pilchards approach the shore, 

 the dory is often taken in considerable numbers. In the autumn of 1829 more 

 than sixty were hauled on shore at once in a net, some of them of large size, and 

 yet the whole of them were sold for nine shillings. It continues common until the 

 end of winter, after which it is more rare but never scarce. The form of the dory 

 would seem to render it incapable of much activity ; and it is sometimes seen floating 

 along with the current rather than swimming ; yet some circumstances favour the 

 idea that it is able to make its way with considerable activity. It keeps pace with 

 shoals of pilchards, so that some are usually enclosed in the seine with them ; it 

 also devours the common cuttle, a creature of vigilance and celerity ; and I have 

 seen a cuttle of a few inches long taken from the stomach of a dory that measured 

 only 4 inches." In the allied genus Cyttus, represented by three species, from 

 Madeira, South Australia, and New Zealand, the body is covered with minute scales, 

 there are no bony plates, the number of spines in the anal fin is two, and the pelvic 

 fins comprise one spine and six or eight rays. 



Stromateids and Corypilenas, — Families Stroma TEIDA? and Coryph^nida?. 



These two families are collectively distinguished from the preceding by the 

 absence of any distinct spinous portion to the dorsal fin; the compressed body 

 being either oblong, or very deep ; and there being more than ten vertebras in the 

 trunk, and more than fourteen in the tail. In the first of the two the dentition 

 is feeble, the palate being devoid of teeth ; but there are horny barbed processes 

 projecting into the oesophagus which take the place of oral teeth. The scales are 

 very small, the eyes lateral, and the dorsal fin long. The typical genus Stromateus, 

 which includes about half a score species from most tropical and temperate seas, is 



