308 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
appendages. Still, when it swims upon its prey, it does 
so by fits and starts, or approaches with extreme 
caution and very slowly. In its usual position, too, it 
lies upon its side, whether swimming through the 
water or resting on a rock". 
Its usual manner of gliding through the water is 
also accomplished by continuous undulating movements 
of the soft-rayed dorsal fin, the corresponding part of 
the anal fin, and the pectoral fins, the other fins re- 
maining motionless * * * * 6 . Nevertheless, the Dory is said to 
make long journeys from deep water to the shallows. 
It is fond of a rough bottom, says Couch, or digs a 
hole in the sand, where it hides, like the Angler, with 
the long filaments of the spinous-rayed dorsal fin waving 
like worms to entice its prey, which consists of Floun- 
ders, Herrings, other fishes and small fry, cuttle-fish 
and other mollusks, and crustaceans 0 . It is said to make 
a grunting noise when drawn out of the water. It 
generally leads a solitary life, being only seldom taken 
in large numbers, but it is known and prized as a 
dainty dish. The flavour of the flesh is compared to 
that of a lobster’s claw d or of the Turbot, or set even 
higher than the latter. It is said to be best in early 
spring, from January to March 0 , especially when it has 
been kept a day or two, or rinsed in fresh water, after 
it has been gutted. Its qualities, however, are not all 
good: Day states that its spines are capable of inflict- 
ing dangerous wounds. The spawning-season is said 
to occur during the winter months'. Olsen states the 
number of eggs in a female specimen at 3,000. 
The singular name ( Sanktepersfisk , St. Peter’s Fish) 
is derived from a tale to the effect that it was this fish 
that St. Peter caught in the Lake of Gennesaret, and 
out of whose mouth he took the tribute money. Ac- 
cording to another version of the story, the apostle 
caught the fish, but when he heard the grunting sound, I 
interpreted it as a cry of complaint, and released his 
captive. The bluish-black spot on each side of the 
body is thus the mark left by Peter’s grasp' 7 . The 
Dory, however, does not occur in any lake. It is a 
true salt-water fish, in European waters being most 
common perhaps in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic 
outside it. On the south and west coasts of Great 
Britain, however, it is still fairly common. In the 
North Sea it becomes rarer and rarer towards the North, 
and its true geographical range probably does not ex- 
tend further north than the Dogger Bank, though it is 
taken once or twice a year on the Scotch coast. It 
has been met with twice on the coast of Norway, 
once at Glesvar, in the neighbourhood of Bergen, and 
again at the very head of Christiania Fjord. It has 
only once been found in Sweden. On the 5th of August, 
1887, a female with very small eggs in the ovaries 
and with the caudal fin somewhat damaged, thus ren- 
dering the length, which was probably 435 mm. from 
the point of the lower jaw to the end of the middle 
rays of the caudal fin, impossible to fix with certainty, 
Avas caught off Stockevik in Skaftoland (Bohuslan). In 
the Scandinavian waters this species is thus one of the 
rarest. By the rest of its geographical extension, hoAv- 
ever, it seems to be a cosmopolitan species, for there 
is only an extremely slight difference between this spe- 
cies and Zeus capensis of the Cape of Good Hope. 
The latter may perhaps deserve a distinct specific name 
as the form marked by an increase in the number of 
the spinous plates, Avhile Zeus pungio, the species Avhich 
occurs in the Mediterranean, can ground its claim to the 
rank of a distinct species only on the more advanced 
development of some of these plates than of others. The 
difference is still less, hoAvever, between the present 
species, Zeus japonicus and the Australian Zeus austra- 
lis, the last of which Gunther, avIio had examined the 
original specimen described by Richardson, unhesit- 
atingly referred to the same species as Zeus father. 
“ Though this habit of lying on its side has not left such distinct traces in the structure of the Dory as the similar, but more pro- 
nounced habit in the Flounders, still it has not been entirely without effect, for we find a want of symmetry even in this species. The 
spinous plates at the bases of the soft-rayed dorsal fin and the anal fin are set farther forward on one side of the body than on the other, 
and their number, too, is often different on either side. This is more often the case in old specimens than in young. 
6 Sa\ t ille-Kent, Nature , July 31, 1873. 
c In the stomach of a Dory about 32 cm. long Couch found 25 Flounders, some of which were 6 cm. in length, 3 half-grown 
Father-Lashers and 5 pebbles from the beach, one of which was 4 cm. long. Another Dory not quite half a kilogramme in weight, had 18 
Sprats, 2 Atherines, a cuttle-fish and some digested fragments of other species in its stomach. The Dory thus does not seem to be at a loss 
how to procure food. 
d Olsen, 1. c. 
e Blanchere, Nonv. Diet. Gen. Peclies , p. 24G. Olsen states, on the other hand, that the Dory is best from May to January. 
f Day, 1. c. and Olsen, 1. c. 
The same tale is also told of the Haddock. 
