PRESENT ABUNDANCE OF SWORD-FISH. 349 



the winter fishery in the Mediterranean. Meunier quotes this testimony by Spallanzani : "I took 

 part many times in this fishery, and I dare not tell how many young fish are its victims ; being of 

 no value they are thrown back into the sea, mutilated Or already dead from the rubbing of the net- 

 meshes. I write denouncing this destructive method, and I urge forcibly the harm which results 

 from it. They tell me it is true that there is a law of Genoa which forbids its use, or rather its 

 abuse, but this does not do away with the fact that each year there sail from the Gulf of Spezzia 

 three or four pairs of fishing boats which go to the sea to carry on this fishing. Still more, the 

 governor of the place, who should carry out this law, is the first to favor, by means of a gift of 

 silvery the abuse which it is intended to prevent." 



This, however, was a century ago. I have met with no complaints of decrease in the works of 

 later writers, though in Targioni-Tozzetti's report, published in 1880, it is stated that there is much 

 opposition to the capture of small fish. 



NATURE OF FOOD. Dr. Fleming found the remains of Sepias in its stomach, and also small 

 fishes. Oppian stated that it eagerly devours the Hippuris (probably Coryphccna). 



A specimen taken off Seaconnet, July 22, 1875, had in its stomach the remains of small fish, 

 perhaps Stromateus triacanlhus, and jaws of a squid, perhaps Loligo Pealii. 



Their food in the Western Atlantic consists for the most part of the common schooling species 

 of fishes. 



They feed on menhaden, mackerel, bonitoes, bluefish, and other species which swim in close 

 schools. Their habits of feeding have often been described to me by old fishermen. They are said 

 to rise beneath the school of small fish, striking to the right and left with their swords until they 

 have killed a number, which they thea proceed to devour. Menhaden have been seen floating at 

 the surface which have been cut nearly in twain by a blow of a sword. Mr. John H. Thomson 

 remarks that he has seen them apparently throw the fish in the air, catching them on the fall. 



Capt. Benjamin Ashby says that they feed ou mackerel, herring, whiting, and menhaden. He 

 has found half a bucketful of small fish of these kinds in the stomach of one Sword-fish. He has 

 seen them in the act of feeding. They rise perpendicularly out of the water until the sword and 

 two-thirds of the remainder of the body are exposed to view. He has seen a school of herring 

 crowding together at the surface on George's Banks as closely as they could be packed. A Sword- 

 fish came up through the dense mass and fell flat over on its side, striking many fish with the 

 sides of its sword. He has at one time picked up as much as a bushel of herrings thus killed by a 

 Sword-fish on George's Banks. 



REPRODUCTION. But little is known regarding their time and place of breeding. They are 

 said to deposit their eggs in large quantities on the coasts of Sicily, and European writers give 

 their spawning time as occurring the latter part of spring and the beginning of summer. In the 

 Mediterranean they occur of all sizes from four hundred pounds down, and the young are so 

 plentiful as to become a common article of food. Except in this region the young are never taken ; on 

 our own coast, plentiful as they are, they are never seen less than three feet, and are usually much 

 larger. M. Rayuaud, who brought to Cuvier a specimen of Histiopliorus four inches long, taken in 

 January, 1829, in the Atlantic, between the Cape of Good Hope and France, reported that there 

 were good numbers of young Sail-fish in the place where this was taken. 1 



Old fishermen who have taken and dressed them by the hundred assure me that they have 

 never seen traces of spawn in them. The absence of young fish aud spawning females ou the 

 coast of North America would indicate that they do not breed with us. Judging from the locations 

 where young fish have been taken, it seems probable that they breed in the open ocean. 



1 CUVIER & VALENCIENNES: Hist. Nat. Poies., viii, p. 305. 



