fool-fish

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

(Genus, monocanthus. Cuvier.) The popular name of the long-finned file-fish. "Our fishermen apply to it the whimsical name of Fool-fish," says Dr. DeKay, "in allusion to what they consider its absurd mode of swimming with a wriggling motion, its body being sunk, and its mouth just on a level with the water."--A Nat. Hist. of New York.

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