FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



351 



Figure 186. — Cutlassfish (Trichiurus lepturus), Florida. From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



South Atlantic coast of the United States, occa- 

 sionally straying north as far as Massachusetts 

 Bay. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The cutlass- 

 fish is only an accidental straggler north of Cape 



Cod. One was taken at Wellfleet in the summer of 

 1845, and one in Salem Harbor also many years 

 ago, and it is recorded from Lynn by Kendall. 48 

 There is no report of it farther north in the Gulf 

 of Maine, or for Canadian waters. 



THE SWORDFISHES. FAMILY XIPHIIDAE 



The upper jaw and snout of the swordfish (there 

 is only one species) is greatly prolonged, forming a 

 flat, sharp-edged sword. It has a very high first- 

 dorsal fin and a very small second dorsal, both of 

 them soft rayed ; a broad lunate tail ; two separate 

 anal fins, the second very small; and a strong longi- 

 tudinal keel on either side of the caudal peduncle. 

 It has no ventral fins, and the adults have neither 

 teeth nor scales. The spearfish family (p. 357) is 

 the only other group represented in the Gulf of 

 Maine fauna which at all resembles the swordfish, 

 but spearfish have ventral fins and minute teeth; 

 their swords are round edged, and either there is 

 one long continuous dorsal fin or, if there are two, 

 the first is several times as long, relatively, as it 

 is in the swordfish. 



Swordfish Xiphias gladius Linnaeus 1758 



Broadbill 



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



Description. — The salient feature of the sword- 

 fish is the prolongation of its upper jaw into a 

 long, flattened, sharp-edged 49 and pointed "sword" 

 occupying nearly one-third the total length of the 

 fish. This sword is of itself enough to identify 



" The Massachusetts Bay and Provincetown records listed by Kendal 

 (Occ. Pap. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 7, No. 8, 1908, p. 76) are based on the 

 Wellfleet specimen. He also credits it to Monhegan I., Maine, quoting Storer 

 as his authority, but Storerstated in his latest mention of the species that only 

 two had come to his 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. 



Figure 187. — Swordfish (Xiphias gladius). After California Fish and Game Commission. 



