230 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



matia. Oppian calls it^ perhaps from its bronze colour, 

 j^aX/ceii?, the coppersmith. There are various other ver- 

 nacular aliases along the shores of the Mediterranean, by 

 which the dory is popularly known; such as cetola, or 

 sea-pig, from the erectile bristles which project from the 

 back and head ; gallo di mare, the marine cock, for the 

 same reason ; and rota, or wheel-fish, from the rounded 

 form of the body. Another saint too besides the 

 apostle, St. Christopher, has lent his name to the dqfy ; 

 and the same ' irrupta copula^ associates the portraits of 

 the twain with this fish, as unites, in difierent prints, St. 

 Roche with his dog, St. Anthony with his pig; or, on 

 the Tarentine drachma, Axion and the dolphin. 



The dory is of too greedy a temperament to like the 

 short commons occasionally imposed upon the members 

 of those overgrown communities called shoals ; he hves 

 therefore very much to himself, frequenting such rocky 

 sites as afford a safe retreat and an abundant supply of 

 small fish. Though flat iu form, as a turbot, sole, or 

 plaice, Zeus does not belong to the same family; he 

 swims erect, and both surfaces being thus equally ex- 

 posed to the light, are alike of a coppery hue ; he has, 

 moreover, like the generality of fish, an eye on each side 

 of the head ; while turbot and other flat-fish have them, 

 as we shall see, both on the same side, and, swimming 

 only on one fiank, the opposite in consequence becomes 

 etiolated or blanched. 



Dories have always enjoyed a good reputation among 

 connoisseurs in fish ; the Mediterranean possesses per- 

 haps few better species ; the finest specimens, however, 

 do not occur in the waters of this sea, but in those of the 

 Atlantic, as all the world is at present agreed, and as 

 Columella knew long ago, for he recommends in particular 

 to his countrymen those that were taken off the coast 

 of Cadiz. In the Bay of Biscay, where they grow to a 

 larger size, specimens often occur of ten and twelve 



