DORHB. 
119 
opposite direction, it caused the Doree to be regarded as sacred 
to Neptune, the deity of the ocean. An explanation, which 
ascribes the names of Chalkeus and Faber to its sooty appearance, 
and the numerous tools signified by the angular spines with 
which the outline of its body is studded, was probably an 
after-thought. Its common English name appears to have been 
obtained from the French language, as signifying the yellow 
or gilded appearance which this fish not seldom displays when 
fresh from the ocean j but Janitore (the Doorkeeper) and Adoree 
(the Worshipped) have also been claimed as aflhrding the 
proper etymology. 
This fish is common in the Mediterranean, and along the 
south coasts of Europe, as also on the west and south of the 
British Islands; but it becomes more scarce as we proceed 
northward, and is accounted rare in Scotland and the north of 
England and Ireland. It is not the least uncommon portion 
of its history that it is met with also in the sea of Japan and 
Australia, although not known in the ocean between us and 
those distant regions. 
Fhe motions of the Doree are in some degree influenced by 
the seasons, so that it is more frequently and abundantly caught 
in the summer and autumn; but its subordinate wanderings are 
guided by the prey it follows after, in the pursuit of which its 
appetite is eager and even ravenous. From the stomach of a 
Doree that measured twelve inches and a half in length, I have 
taken twenty-five Flounders, some of which were two inches 
and a half long, three half-grown Father-lashers, and five stones 
from the beach, one of which was an inch and a half in 
length; the latter having been swallowed, as wc may suppose, 
in the eagerness of devouring the fish from the ground. So 
gorged was this fish with its gluttony, as to have become 
helpless and unable to escape being taken with the hand. 
Athough its ordinary motions are but slow, it also at times 
shews itself capable of securing a prey possessed of nimbly 
active powers; and this it effects by suddenly protruding its 
capacious jaws, and as quickly swallowing what it obtains. The 
Common Cuttle, (Loligo vulgaris,) of a few inches in length, 
has been found in the stomach of a Doree that measured only 
four inches. Pilchards also are a favourite morsel which it 
follows with perseverance, and thus it becomes often enclosed 
