DORAB. 
485 
whole fish to be bathed in a brilliant luminous halo. This fish must, indeed, be a 
formidable creature to the other inhabitants of the ocean abysses; being in every 
way constructed and armed for strife, and its powerful teeth admirably fitted 
to seize and tear the flesh of the other fishes upon which it preys.” I11 other 
species ( e.g. Eustomias) the barbel is greatly lengthened, all the fins form long 
dentated filaments; the whole of these structures being apparently modified for 
the emission of phosphorescent light. In our figured species not only are there 
luminous dots down the sides of the body, but also larger plates beneath the eyes. 
The Dorab, —Family Cm roc EEtrid.e. 
With the fish represented in the accompanying illustration, which ranges 
from the Red Sea to the Malay Archipelago, and is commonly known in the East 
as the dorab (Chirocentrus dorab), we come to the first of what we may term the 
herring and salmon group, the more typical members of which differ from the 
preceding families of this section in having the parietal bones of the skull separated 
from one another by the intervention of the supraoccipital. In common with the 
herrings, this fish, which is the sole representative of its family, has but a single 
true tail-vertebra. Externally the body is covered with thin deciduous scales; 
barbels, and a fatty fin are alike lacking; but the elements of the gill-covers are 
fully developed. The margin of the upper jaw is formed partly by the premaxillee 
and partly by the maxillae, which are firmly welded at their junction; the short 
dorsal fin is situated in the caudal region of the vertebral column above the much 
longer anal, the tail is deeply forked, the pelvic fins are minute, the lower 
surface of the body is sharp, the gill-opening wide, and false gills wanting. The 
upward direction of the cleft of the mouth, which is armed with formidable teeth, 
coupled with the elongation of the lower jaw, gives a rather peculiar expression to 
the head, and the eyes are remarkable for being covered with skin. The stomach 
is furnished with a blind appendage, the intestine is short, and the air-bladder 
cellulated. As this fish attains a length of fully a dozen feet it is a sufficiently 
'formidable monster, and when captured is said to bite viciously at every object 
