148 PHYSOSTOMI. 



being the young of this species : while many authors seem to have been doubtful 

 whether the various European Heyniramphi were not in reality the young of 

 Belone. 



The young. Couch's magnified figure of the blunt-headed half-beak, the 

 specimen having been half-an-inch in length, shows the fish in the earlier stage, 

 when the lower jaw is commencing to increase in length ; while his European 

 half-beak, at a little over 3| inches in length, demonstrates the fish with the 

 lower jaw grown, but the upper jaw still almost stationary. In Liitken's 

 " Spolia Atlantica," p. 567, will be found a complete series of illustrations, showing 

 the various stages of evolution of the jaws as they become developed with 

 age. 



Steindachner (Sitz. Ak. Wiss. Wien, 1868, lvii, p. 732) remarked upon the 

 identity of Belone acus, Risso, with B. vttlgaris, the distinction between the two 

 forms resting principally upon the latter possessing a small ovoid patch of 

 vomerine teeth, which is said to be absent in the latter. It is remarkable that the 

 finest example in the British Museum from the British shores is destitute of this 

 patch of teeth, although it is present in others. They are likewise absent from 

 the Devonshire specimen which I have figured. Canestrini 1. c. observed upon 

 finding vomerine teeth in an Adriatic example. Professor Giglioli informs me 

 that these vomerine teeth may be present or absent in Mediterranean and Adriatic 

 forms, and he looks upon Belone vulgaris, B. acus, and B. Euxinus as pertaining 

 to one species. 



Names. Sivord fish, green-hen or green-bane, Scotland: green-bone or green- 

 bach, guard-fish, gar-pipe, horn-fish, needle-fish or long-nose, gore-bill, sea-needle, 

 mackerel-guide, which name it has received from its coming towards shore a 

 little prior to the appearance of the mackerel. Gerrich, Cornwall. Hornkecke 

 (Palsgrave). Whaup-fish. In Ireland, horn-eel (Belfast Bay) ; mackerel-scout 

 (Strangford Lough) ; spearling (Portrush); Spanish -mackerel, according toNimmo, 

 at Pioundstone. Its snout is termed gore-bone in some places. Mar nodwydd, or 

 Com big, Welsh. I)e geep, Dutch. L'Orphie, French. 



Habits. Gregarious, migratory, and very voracious, frequently approaching 

 the shore in lai'ge assemblages, and though stragglers may be taken all the year 

 round, it appears to arrive in shoals about March or April, and retires to deeper 

 water late in the autumn, being absent throughout the winter and spring. In 

 the Northern Herald (Inverness, November 22nd, 1844) it was observed that 

 within the last three weeks this fish had been abundant ; its visits are not 

 periodical, either as regards seasons or cycles, in fact twenty-two years had 

 passed since they came in considerable numbers ; about sixty years since there 

 were large shoals, and they were known as Gobbaiche ardnasoar, or " snipe-fish." 

 Although as observed the gar-fish is usually gregarious, Thompson remarked that 

 in Belfast Bay it is generally found singly. Mr. Cornish (Zool. 1865, p. 9814) well 

 describes the appearance of a shoal of these fishes when chased by the tunny, 

 how they scudded rapidly over the face of the sea as though they were 

 actually swimming on the surface, having the larger portion of their bodies in the 

 air. When in pursuit of shoals of small fish it appears to be springing over the 

 waves after them. It jumps over floating substances sometimes in a peculiar 

 way, shooting itself bolt upright and alighting in the water tail first. Mr. Couch 

 recorded how in 1865 he found the upper jaw of a gar-fish transfixed through the 

 body of a mackerel. Mr. Dunn observed upon another having similarly gone 

 through the body of a pilchard, he also informed me, July 25th, 1881, that he 

 had obtained that morning a mackerel with the jaw of a gar-fish transfixing the 

 body just under the pectoral fin, where it had broken off. The same accurate 

 observer remarked that he has reason to believe that they used their beaks as a 

 ram against their prey, sometimes transfixing their eyes : should they do this, of 

 course both would be penetrated. S. Clogg (Zool. June, 1874, p. 4160) observes 

 upon a salmon-peal having been attacked by a gar-fish. It had run its under 

 jaw completely through the peal, and it must have been broken off either by the 

 force of the blow or by the struggles of each fish to free itself. The peal, which 

 weighed nearly 4 lb., was struck behind and quite above the pectoral fin, the jaw 



