SCOMBRID^E. 109 



occiput, while anteriorly it just extends to the upper jaw. Second dorsal opposite 

 and similar to the anal. Pectoral broad, its upper rays the longer. Caudal 

 emarginate. Colours — grayish brown, sometimes becoming lighter on the sides 

 and beneath. 



Varieties. — Lowe's Echeneis jacobcea, includes such forms as possess a truncated 

 caudal fin, and E. pallida those in which the tongue is rough, a somewhat 

 uncommon modification but having no specific value any more than has the form 

 of the tail fin. Giinther (Zool. Record, 1864, p. 155) suggests that E. remeligo, 

 A. Dumeril, is probably an example of this species. Colour — Commerson observed 

 that when many of these fishes are seen attached to one object it is not uncommon 

 to see one or two which differ from the rest in being of a whitish colour. 



Names. — Aristotle's name for this fish signifies "a louse," and which he 

 observed was found on the dolphin. Withal, 1608, terms this fish suchstone, 

 a designation more appropriate to the " lamprey," which was perhaps intended, 

 as the Echeneis has very rarely been captured in Britain. 



Habits. — Commerson asserted that it swims with its back downwards, but Sir 

 J. Richardson remarked that its motions are wriggling like those of an eel, 

 swimming with considerable velocity, and able to overtake with ease a vessel 

 going before a brisk gale. Bennett says it merely swims round the body it 

 attends, and only fixes on it occasionally and for a very short time. Cornish 

 observes that it injures the skin of the shark to which it is attached (Zoologist, 

 1880, p. 2225) ; Schcepf accounting for its presence in various parts of the 

 world, mentions having seen it taken from several vessels recently arrived at 

 New York. De Kay alludes to an example captured a considerable distance 

 up the Hudson River, while Catesby remarks upon observing sucking-fishes 

 disengaged and swimming very deliberately near a shark's mouth without its 

 attempting to swallow them, the reason for which he felt himself unable to give. 

 Means of capture. — Sailors are said to sometimes take these fish by means 

 of a bait of fat enclosing a small hook. 



Uses. — The Malays consider this fish powerful manure for fruit trees. 

 Habitat. — Both sides of the Atlantic, the Mediterranean where it is rare, 

 the Pacific Ocean, East and West Indies. . In Europe it has been captured so far 

 north as Iceland (Olafsen) and Denmark, but is rare in British waters, which 

 is somewhat remarkable as the blue shark to which it elsewhere attaches 

 itself is not uncommon along our shores. Perhaps the temperature of the 

 water is too low for its requirements. In the British seas it is evidently a mere 

 wanderer, which has been brought attached to a whale, large fish, or some 

 floating object which afford him house room and water carriage to climes 

 scarcely best adapted to his requirements, but from whence a return conveyance 

 may be difficult to obtain. 



The number of instances in which captures of this fish have been recorded 

 from the seas of Great Britain and Ireland are but few.* Turton, in his 

 " British Fauna," observes, " taken by the author in Swansea from the back 

 of a cod-fish in the summer of 1806." Mr. Dillwyn, in his " Fauna of Swansea,'' 

 entertained doubts respecting the accuracy of Turton's assertion, having "strong 

 grounds for believing that there was some mistake about it." In July, 1848, 

 one was captured at piontarf, Dublin Bay, adhering to the gills of a blue 

 shark, Co/rchaHas glaucus, ten feet long, which had been observed in shallow 

 water and driven ashore the previous night. A second remora was attached to 

 the gills on the opposite side, but when disturbed it disappeared inwards by 

 the bronchial orifices, and was not seen again. Mr. Dunn obtained a specimen 

 (which he gave Mr. Couch) in 1867 from a blue shark taken eighteen [miles off 

 Deadman's, near Mrvagissey. In the British Museum Catalogue one is thus 

 alluded to: "Half-grown. Guernsey. Presented by Mrs. Mauger." Likewise 

 two others, also half-grown, from an unknown locality, received from the same 

 donor. Without further information, Couch's incredulity as to the first having 

 come from Guernsey may be a not unmerited criticism. 



* For an instance of taking one of these fishes in a bottle at the Nore, see Introduction, /c . 



n 



