POMPILUS. 
125 
shape was so close that no doubt remained of their being the 
same species, a fact now admitted by all naturalists. 
But this fish was not unknown to ancient observers, although 
tov want of discrimination they fell into that error concerning 
It w ich is common to them as concerns many species which 
possess the same or similar habits. They confounded it with 
the Pilot Fishes, and the remarks of Oppian are as applicable 
to one class of these fishes as they are to the other. The 
Pompilus seeks the society of a ship at sea, and will accompany 
It through a great extent of ocean, although not in equal 
numbers with the true Pilot Fish, already described. An indi- 
vidual of the species now under consideration came with a 
ship to the harbour of St. Ives, in Cornwall, and while there 
suffered itself to be caught with a gaff from a boat alongside. 
Jago s examples were taken together in a net in the year 1721, 
at the mouth of the River Looe; and so was another which 
came into the hands of my late friend Clement Jackson, a 
skilful naturalist of the same place. It was caught in a floating- 
net, set for Salmon; and such was the force exerted by this 
tish, that It carried the net before it over the head-rope, when 
It fell into the folds and became entangled. An example was 
taken m a drift-net shot by a boat near Falmouth, in August, 
1»50, and another was caught near Penzance, in February, 
1857. The example before referred to as caught near Polperro,* 
was taken^ with a hook baited with a slice (termed a lask) 
from the side of a Mackarel; but a mussel, without the shell, 
and a piece of the flesh of the Sea Bream, were found in the 
stomach, both these substances probably having been snatched 
from the hooks of fishermen. Jago found oreweed in the 
stomach of those he examined, and Ruysch says they feed on 
this, although chiefly on flesh. All the examples' we have 
named were met with in Cornwall, but I have learnt from 
oshua Alder, Esq., that this fish has wandered much farther 
towards the north. An example is reported by him as having 
been taken at Cullercoats. 
_ The second specimen I have met with measured thirty-two 
inches in length, which probably is the greatest size to which 
It attains; but that from which our description was derived, 
'«^as in length only fifteen inches, which was exactly the same 
with Jago’s fish. The depth of the body behind the head was 
