126 ACANTHOPTERYGII. — SCOMBRID:®. 
waters of the southern seas, and flinging hack 
the blaze of a tropical sun. Its long dorsal is 
sky-blue, with the rays gold coloured ; its caudal 
green; the body is green on the upper parts, 
mottled with orange, and the under parts shine 
with the lustre of burnished silver, divided from 
the green hue by a yellow lateral line. 
In the tropical parts of the Atlantic we have | 
been familiar with a species akin to this, but 
apparently distinct from it. In those waters, 
especially in the calms that so frequently prevail 
where the trade-wind ceases, the Coryphenes, or | 
as seamen incorrectly name them. Dolphins^ are 
very common. One is never weary of admiring 
their beauty. Their form is deep, but thin and 
somewhat flattened: and their sides are of bril- | 
liant pearly white, like polished silver. In small 
companies of flve or six, they usually appear and 
play around and beneath the ship, sometimes ; 
close to the surface, and sometimes at such a j 
depth that the eye can but dimly discern their I 
shadowy outline. When playing at an incon- 
siderable depth, in their turnings hither and i 
thither, the rays of the sun, reflected from their | 
polished sides, as one or the other is exposed to | 
the light, flash out in sudden gleams, or are in- i 
terrupted, in a very striking manner. Night and | 
day these interesting creatures are sporting about, [ 
apparently insusceptible of weariness. Their ! 
motion is very rapid, when their powers are put ;j 
forth, as in pursuit of the timid little Flying- j 
flsh. I 
In all books of Natural History we see ac- | 
counts of the fleeting hues which play over the i 
body of the Coryphene in the agonies of death ; jl 
