KICKED DOR. 
ol 
a full-gro-wTi fish, are yet found accompanying their parents in 
the pursuit of prey; and it is not to be doubted that the 
newly-born of a variety of kinds of the common sorts of fish, 
are the ready food on which they subsist, until they have 
acquired more enlarged powers of depredation. 
But the full-grown fish, existing as it does in such large 
numbers, is not inferior to the much bulkier members of this 
predaceous race in the annoyance, if not absolute injury, inflicted 
on the fishermen. Nets suffer greatly from their depredations, 
as well by the jagged bites with which they destroy the texture 
of the twine, even where it is not cut through, as by the 
pieces cut from the fishes that had become entangled in the 
meshes, but which are thus rendered unfit for the market. To 
lines they are not less injurious; and it has frequently happened 
that fishermen, who have gone to sea with a good supply of 
hooks, have been compelled to return from having had the 
whole cut from the line by the teeth of the Picked Dog. It 
IS the belief of fishermen that these annoying enemies are often 
in the habit of taking their station at mid-depth of water, and 
watching until a whiting or other small fish has taken the 
hook; when they cut the line to intercept the capture, and so 
cany off the prize without risk to themselves. 
When however they have chanced to swallow the hook, or 
when entangled in a net, it is the scarcely probable belief of 
fishermen that their escape is not commonly by means of tlieir 
teeth, but by the cutting powers of the spines, which stand in 
front of the dorsal fins; in the use of which there is no doubt 
they possess intuitive knowledge. If laid hold of by the head, 
they will bend the back into a bow, and so bring the spines 
into a favourable position for a backward stroke, which is effected 
by a sudden and violent return of the body to the straight 
posture. The spines are thus thrust asunder in such a manner 
as to tear any thing that lies within reach of the stroke; and 
as a defence this action is so effectual as to demand from the 
fisherman some care in the handling of it; for the fish is 
able to direct its spines with a considerable degree of preci- 
sion;- although the effort is not always sufficient to save it 
from the clutches of other voracious inhabitants of the seas; 
and I have accordingly found it in the stomach of Ling, Blue 
Shark, and other fishes. 
