FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



221 



armed with 7 to 10 smaller teeth behind the fangs. The anal fin is reduced to a 

 series of short inconspicuous spines, about 100 to 110 in number, without connecting 

 fin membrane, running back from the vent nearly to the tip of the tail. The small 

 pectorals are situated close behind the posterior angle of the gill cover. There are 

 no ventral fins and the skin is scaleless. 



Color. — Preserved examples are bright silvery all over. The dorsal fin has been 

 variously described as yellowish or dusky green in life, dark edged or speckled along 

 the margin with black. 



Size. — Maximum length about 5 feet. 



General range. — Warmer parts of the Atlantic; abundant in the West Indies; 

 rarely straying north to Massachusetts Bay. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The cutlasfish is only an accidental straggler 

 north of Cape Cod. One was taken at Wellfleet in the summer of 1845, and one, 

 also, in Salem Harbor many years ago. It is recorded from Lynn by Kendall.'^ 

 There is no record of it farther north in the Gulf of Maine or in Canadian waters. 



Fig. 101.— Cutlasfish (Trichiurus leplurus) 

 THE SWORDFISHES. FAMILY XIPHIID^ 



The upper jaw and snout of the swordfish (there is only one species) is greatly 

 prolonged, forming a flat, sharp-edged sword. There is a very high first dorsal fin 

 and a very small second, both soft rayed; a broad lunate tail; two separate anal fins, 

 the second being very small; and strong longitudinal keels on the caudal peduncle. 

 There are no ventral fins, and in the adult there are neither teeth nor scales. The 

 spearfish family is the only other group represented in the Gulf of Maine fauna 

 which at all resembles the swordfish, but spearfish have ventral fins and teeth, their 

 swords are round edged, and either there is one long continuous dorsal fin or, if 

 there are two, the first is relatively several times as long as in the swordfish. 



83. Swordfish {Xiphias gladius Linnseus) 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 894. 



Description. — The salient feature of the swordfish is the prolongation of its 

 upper jaw into a long, flattened, sharp-edged" and pointed "sword," occupying 



8' The Massachusetts Bay and Provincetown records listed by Kendall (1908) are based on the Wellfleet specimen. He also 

 credits it to Monhegan Island, Maine, quoting Storer as bis authority, but Storer expressly states in his latest mention of the 

 species that but two had come to bis notice — the Wellfleet specimen just mentioned, and one taken at the head of Buzzards Bay. 



" In its tropical relatives, the sailflsh and spearfish, the sword is round edged, spearlike, and relatively shorter. 



