Online Encyclopedia

DORY, or JOHN DORY (Zeus faber)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 438 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DORY, or JOHN DORY (
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Zeus faber)
  , an Acanthopterygian fish, the type of the
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family Zeidae, held in such esteem by the ancient Greeks that they called it
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Zeus after their
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principal divinity . Its
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English name is probably a corruption of the French jaune doree, and has reference to the prevailing
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golden-yellow colour of the living fish . The
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body in the dory is much compressed, and is nearly oval in form, while the mouth is large and capable of extensive protrusion . It possesses two dorsal fins, of which the anterior is armed with long slender spines, and the connecting membrane is produced into long tendril-like filaments; while a row of short spines extends along the belly and the roots of the anal and dorsal fins . The colour of the upper
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surface is olive-brown; the sides are yellowish, and are marked with a prominent dark spot, on account of which the dory divides with the haddock the reputation of being the fish from which Peter took the tribute
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money . It is an inhabitant of the
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Atlantic coasts of
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Europe, the Mediterranean and the Australian seas . It is occasionally abundant on the coasts of Devon and
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Cornwall, and is also found, though more sparingly, throughout the
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British seas . It is exceedingly voracious, feeding on molluscs, shrimps and the young of other fish; and Jonathan Couch (1789-1870), author of a
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History of British Fishes, states that from the stomach of a single dory he has taken 25 flounders, some 22 in. long, 3 fatherlashers
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half grown and 5 stones from the
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beach, one 12 in. in length . They are often taken in the fishermen's nets off the Cornwall and Devon coast, having entered these in pursuit of pilchards . They are seldom found in deep
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water, preferring sandy bays, among the weeds growing on the bottom of which they lie in wait for their prey, and in securing this they are greatly assisted by their
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great width of gape, by their power of protruding the mouth, and by the slender filaments of the first dorsal fins, which float like
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worms in the water, while the greater
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part of the body is buried in the sand, and thus they entice the smaller fishes to come within easy reach of the capacious jaws . The dory often attains a
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weight of 12 lb, although those usually brought into the market do not averafe more than 6 or 7 lb . It is highly valued as an article of food .

The family Zeidae has assumed

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special
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interest of
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late, O . Thilo 1 and G . A . Boulenger 3 having shown that they have much in
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common with the flat-fishes or Pleuronectidae and must be nearly related to the
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original stock from which this asymmetrical type has been evolved, especially if the Upper Eocene genus Amphistium be taken into consideration . This affinity is further supported by the observations made by L . W . Byrne3 on the asymmetry in the number and arrangement of the bony plates at the
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base of the dorsal and anal fins in the young of the John Dory . (G . A .

End of Article: DORY, or JOHN DORY (Zeus faber)
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