SWORD-FISH, SPEAR-FISH AND CUTLASS-FISH. 245 



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 then proceed to devour. Menha- 

 den have been seen floating at the surface which have been cut nearly in 

 twain by a blow^ of a sword. Mr. John H. Thompson 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 on 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 feed- 

 ing. They rise perpendicular 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 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 her- 

 rings thus killed by a Sword-fish on George's Banks. 



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 plenti- 

 ful as to become a common article of food. M. Raymond, who brought 

 to Cuvier a specimen of Histiophorus 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. 



Meunier, quoting Spallanzani, states that the Sword-fish does not 

 approach the coast of Sicily except in the season of reproduction ; the 

 males are then seen pursuing the females. It is a good time to capture 

 them, for when the female has been taken the male lingers near and is 

 easily approached. The fish are abundant in the Straits of Messina from 

 the middle of April to the middle of September ; early in the season they 

 hug the Calabrian shore, approaching from the north; after the end of 

 June they are most abundant on the Sicilian shore, approaching from the 

 south. 



