730 PISCES—DORADO...SWORD FISH. 
was long a matter of doubt, but appears now to be an ascertained fact. M. 
Geoffroy, when near Malta, in 1798, saw two of the pilot fish lead a shark 
to a piece of bacon, which a seaman had let down by a line and hook. 
THe DOR VY, OR DORADO 
Tue form of this fish is very disgusting. Its body is oval, and muca 
compressed at the sides. Its snout is long, and its mouth is wide. The 
first back fin consists of ten spiny rays, with long filaments; the second of 
twenty-four soft rays. The tail is round at the end. The color of the body 
is olive, varied with light blue and white; while living, it has the appear- 
ance of gilding, whence its name Dorée (gilt). It is found in the North 
sea, the British channel, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean. 
THE SWORD Fis Ht 
3 é 
4S very common in the Mediterranean, and is much esteemed for food by the 
Sicilians, who consider it as equal to the sturgeon. It is also found on the 
coasts of America. It grows to a very large size, upwards of twenty feet in 
length. It is ofa long and rounded body, largest near the head, and taper-_ 
ing by degrees to the tail. The skin is rough, the back black, and the belly 
white. It has one finon the back, running almost its whole length. It 
nas one pair of fins also at the gills. But the most remarkable part of this 
fish is the snout, which, in the upper jaw, runs out in the figure of a sword, 
sometimes to the length of three feet, and is of a substance like a coarse 
«ind of ivory. The under jaw is much shorter. 
1 Zeus faber,Lix. This genus is characterized by a body oval, compressed ; jaws 
strongly protractile; teeth crowded; spinous portions of the dorsal and anal fins sepa- 
rated from the others by a deep notch; scales projecting, and spinous scales at the base 
of the vertical fins, and between the ventral and anal fins. 
2 Xiphias eladius, Lix. The genus Xiphias has the snout prolonged, resembling the 
blade ofa sword; strong asperities in the jaws, in the place of teeth; body elongated 
rounded, with scarcely perceptible scales or projecting carinze on each side of the tail, 
aie MNS long and pointed; two or three anterior rays of the dorsal fin spinous ; n¢ 
ventral fin. 
