[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
THE body is long, the head compressed, rounding off in front, without scales as far as the operculum. The mouth is small, the jaws of equal length and furnished with small teeth; the palate has a curved row of similar teeth in front, and the tongue has teeth all along. The colour varies in several species. What is most remarkable in this fish is that he is a provisor or guide for the shark, when in search of food. This opinion, long doubted, has been, it seems, confirmed by Mr. Geoffroy, professor in the Museum of Natural History at Paris, who speaks as an eye witness, and describes how the Pilots (for two of them accompanied the shark which he saw near Malta, on the 26th of May, 1798) led the fish to a piece of bacon which a seaman had let down with a rope and hook; and how the shark obeyed their motions till he arrived in sight of his prey. What can induce this small fish to associate and become subservient to the shark?