FISHES. 209 



derirved from the French doree, so that the entire name means 'gilt cock.'" Common 

 people are not in the habit of deriving names from two different and foreign languages, 

 and we may therefore safely discai-d the surmise as very improbable, to say the least. 

 Another writer derives it from the French, jatine, yellow, and doree, gilt, but there is 

 no indication that the fish has ever received such a name as ' jaune doree ' on the 

 French coast, and it is very unlikely that it should have originated among the English. 

 A more probable supposition is, that the name is a corruption of the Italian word 

 Janitore, by which the fish is known on parts of the Italian coast, and especially at 

 Venice. The fish has a dark ocellated spot on each side some distance behind the 

 head or near the middle of the body, and tradition records that it was the fish caught 

 in Lake Gennesaret, from which the apostle Peter took the tribute-money, and that 

 the spot is a reminiscence of the manner in which he held the fish. The names cur- 

 rent at various places embody this tradition. It is possible that some traveler may 

 have recognized the fish in England, and communicated the legend respecting it as 

 well as the name, and that the latter superseded any other in the present corrupted 

 form. As has already been indicated, the fish is an inhabitant of the sea, and since it 

 does not dwell, and never did dwell, in Lake Gennesaret, where the holy man found 

 the tribute-giving fish, it certainly is not the veritable fish of St. Peter. The John 

 Dory, or dory, attains a considerable size, occasionally weighing as much as twenty or 

 thirty pounds, but rarely more than twelve to eighteen in English waters. 



A species of this family, Zenopsis ocellatus, was taken on one occasion near Prov- 

 incetown, Mass. 



The boar-fish of the English ( Ccipros aper) is the type of a family (Caproid^) related 

 to the Zenidse, but is not of sufficient interest to demand more than this mention. 



Both the ZenidsB and Caproidse exhibit a singular mode of locomotion. This is to a 

 large extent effected by a " scarcely perceptible vibratory action " of the dorsal and 

 anal fins, and they are thus enabled to steal upon their victims unnoticed, till they 

 have approached so near that they can grab their prey by suddenly shooting out their 

 very extensile jaws. 



We may next consider a group of fishes which have generally been closely approxi- 

 mated to the Scombroidea. In fact, they are not very closely related, although the 

 members of the two groups have been shufiled to some extent between each other. 

 The fishes in question form a superfamily named CH^TODONTOIDEA. The typical 

 representatives have a very much compressed body, appearing to graduate insensibly 

 into the dorsal and anal fins, on account of the extension upon those fins of the integu- 

 ments and scales. The upper pharyngeal bones are much compressed, and vertically 

 extended or lamelliform. The processes for the ribs originate low on the bodies of 

 the vertebrae, and the anterior vertebrse and basioccipital bone of the skull are pecu- 

 liarly modified. There are several families. 



The Ephippiid^ constitute a small family distinguished by the limitation of the 

 branchial apertures to the sides, and their separation by a wide scaly isthmus which 

 extends from the pectoral region to the chin ; the spinous and soft portions of the 

 dorsal are more or less distinct; the upper jaw is scarcely protractile, and the post- 

 temporal or uppermost bone of the shoulder-girdle has two processes by which it 

 articulates with the cranium. 



Two species of one of the genera of Ephippiidae ( Chcetodipterus) occur along the 

 American coast. One species, C. faber, extends along the eastern coasts as far north 

 as Massachusetts, although rare in its northern extension ; it is tolerably abundant 

 along the Maryland and Virginia coasts and southwards, and is sold in the Washington 



VOL. III. — 14 



