STROMATEIDS AND CORYPHALNAS. 
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ten. and that of the tail fourteen, form the leading features by which the small 
family of the dories are distinguished from the other members of the group under 
consideration. The body may be invested either with small scales or bony plates, 
or may be devoid of both. The eyes are lateral, and the teeth conical and small. 
There is no connection between the preopercular and the orbit; the gill-opening is 
wide, and the pectoral tins are thoracic in position. The John Dory (Zeus faber), 
which gives the name to the family, and is said to derive its own title from a 
corruption of a foreign equivalent of “ gilded cock/ 5 represents a genus with few 
species, characterised by a series of bony plates at the base of the dorsal and anal 
fins, and another on the under surface; the anal having four spines. The eight or 
nine spines of the first dorsal fin, which is not much shorter than the second, are 
produced into long slender filaments; and there are but few or no scales. The 
genus ranges over the Mediterranean, the eastern coasts of the temperate zones of 
the Atlantic, and the Australian and Japanese seas; while in a fossil state it occurs 
in the Miocene deposits of Sicily. An exceedingly ugly and ill-favoured creature, 
with a huge protruding mouth, the common dory is olive-brown tinged with yellow 
in colour, showing blue and metallic reflections in certain lights. The sides bear a 
large black spot, surrounded by a white ring; a similar mark occurring in some of 
the other species. A somewhat migratory fish on the British coasts, the dory has 
been long esteemed by epicures, and it is stated that its flesh is better on the second 
than on the first day. Couch writes that “ when the pilchards approach the shore, 
the dory is often taken in considerable numbers. In the autumn of 1829 more 
than sixty were hauled on shore at once in a net, some of them of large size, and 
yet the whole of them were sold for nine shillings. It continues common until the 
end of winter, after which it is more rare but never scarce. The form of the dory 
would seem to render it incapable of much activity ; and it is sometimes seen floating 
along with the current rather than swimming; yet some circumstances favour the 
idea that it is able to make its way with considerable activity. It keeps pace with 
shoals of pilchards, so that some are usually enclosed in the seine with them; it 
also devours the common cuttle, a creature of vigilance and celerity; and I have 
seen a cuttle of a few inches long taken from the stomach of a dory that measured 
only 4 inches.” In the allied genus Cyttus, represented by three species, from 
Madeira, South Australia, and New Zealand, the body is covered with minute scales, 
there are no bony plates, the number of spines in the anal fin is two, and the pelvic 
fins comprise one spine and six or eight rays. 
Stromateids and Corypblenas, —Families Stromateid/E and Coeyph.enidae. 
These two families are collectively distinguished from the preceding by the 
absence of any distinct spinous portion to the dorsal fin; the compressed body 
being either oblong, or very deep; and there being more than ten vertebrae in the 
trunk, and more than fourteen in the tail. In the first of the two the dentition 
is feeble, the palate being devoid of teeth; but there are horny barbed processes 
projecting into the oesophagus which take the place of oral teeth. The scales are 
very small, the eyes lateral, and the dorsal fin long. The typical genus Stromateus, 
which includes about half a score species from most tropical and temperate seas, is 
