pilotfish

pilular i a Ichthy.: Naucrates duct or , a small pelagic fish, about a foot long, of bluish color, marked with from five to seven broad, dark, vertical bars. It owes its scientific and popular English name to its habit of keeping company with ships and large fish, generally sharks. It is the pompilus of the ancients; and Övid ( Hal . 101) calls it comes ratium . The con nection between this fish and the shark has been accounted for in various ways; but it is probably a purely selfish one on the part of the pilot-fish, which obtains a great part of its food from the parasitic crustaceans with which sharks and other large fish are infested, and from the small pieces of flesh left unnoticed when the shark tears its prey. The pilot-fish is never, so far as is known, attacked by the shark; but that is probably because the smaller fish is too nimble for the larger one. Pilotfish often accompany ships into harbor. pilot-jack, s. A flag or signal hoisted by a ve el for a pilot.