138 SALT-WATER FISHES 



Cyttidae 



The John Dory {Zeus faher) is a much more familiar and 

 valuable fish, though its popularity as a food-fish is un- 

 doubtedly prejudiced by ignorant dislike of its grotesque 

 appearance. Seen from the front, as it hovers in the aquarium 

 tank, the fish foreshortens to a mere line, which is of immense 

 advantage to it when stalking its prey. The more familiar 

 view of the dory, however, as seen in the fishmonger's shop, 

 shows us a compressed, dull grey fish, with a conspicuous 

 black spot on each side of the body, and, as seen, in at 

 any rate the dead fish, a disproportionately small and tubular 

 mouth. The fins have long rays which end in filaments, and 

 at the base of the dorsal and anal there are rows of spines. 

 The dory grows in our seas to a weight of at any rate 1 8 lb., 

 and the greatest recorded length is just over 22 in. Its 

 distribution is that of most of our southern fishes, the fish 

 being common on the south coast, rare on the east, and 

 increasingly scarce in northern waters. The largest examples 

 appear not to penetrate much north of the Thames and Severn 

 estuaries, and in the Lancashire district, for instance, most 

 of those taken of late years have measured about 5 in.* 



There are patches of bony plates on the abdomen and, 

 as already stated, at the base of both dorsal and anal fins, and 

 the scales generally are few and small. The small teeth of the 

 dory lie in the jaws and on the vomer ; there are none on 

 the tongue. The curious fancy among the fishermen, asso- 

 ciating the black blotch on each side of this fish with the 

 thumb and finger of St. Peter when taking the tribute money, 

 has been so frequently related as to need no more than 

 passing mention. 



The habits of the dory are more interesting than its some- 

 what unpromising exterior might suggest. The writer has 

 often watched these fishes stalking their prey beneath Bourne- 



* Herdman and Dawson, Fishes and Fisheries of the Irish Sea, 1902, p. 39. 



