124 ACANTHOPTERYGII. — SCOMBRID^. 
British harbour. Five or six such cases are men- j ( 
tioned by Mr. Yarrell. On these visits of cour- I , 
tesy seems to depend the claim of the species to 1 
a place among British Fishes. [| 
4. Vomerina. A few genera, rather numerous j 
in species, (which amount, according to Prince i 
Bonaparte, to sixty-five), are grouped together j 
here, distinguished by having the body short, very j i 
deep, and very thin ; a smooth, satiny skin, desti- j I 
tute of any apparent scales ; the rays of the dorsal, | ; 
anal, and ventrals, often prolonged into slender j- 
filaments. The species are chiefly found in the p 
tropical seas, and none are recorded as British, 
or even European. 
5. Zeina. The form in this group is thin, 
deep, and short, as in the preceding ; but the 
mouth is greatly projectile, and furnished with 
numerous small teeth. The dorsal is single (in 
most of the genera) and is not preceded by any 
free spines. There are about forty species, of 
which three are marked as British. One of these 
is the John Doree, {Zeus faher, Linn.) eminent } 
in all ages for the flavour of its flesh. The an- 
cients honoured it with the name of the supreme 
demon in their mythology, (Zeu 9 , Jupiter), in 
token of their estimation of it ; and in modern 
times, the prince of epicures. Quin, disdained not 
to make a journey from Bath to Plymouth for : 
the sole purpose of eating it in perfection* Me- j 
dieval superstition assigns other honours to this 
fish : there is a round spot of black on each side | 
in the middle of its yellow body, which is ac- i 
counted for by the legend which makes the Doree 
the fish caught by the apostle Peter to pay the ! 
tribute shekel, or by the rival story, equally true, | 
