C54 AMERICAN FISHES. 



the ceiling one and a half inches white oak. The sword projected two 

 inches through the ceiling, on the inside of the ' after run.' It struck by 

 a butt on the outside, which caused the leak. They took out and replaced 

 a piece of the plank, and proceeded on their voyage." 



The Sail-fish, Histioplionts gladius (with H. amcricanus and H. orie/i- 

 talis, questionable species, and H. pulchellus and H. immaculatus, young), 

 occurs in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Malay Archipelago, and south at 

 least as far as the Cape of Good Hope, latitude 35° S.; in the Atlantic on 

 the coast of Brazil, latitude 30° S.. to the Equator, and north to Southern 

 New England, latitude 42° N.; in the Pacific to Southwestern Japan, 

 latitude 30° to 10° N. In a general way the range may be said to be in 

 tropical and temperate seas, between latitude 30° S. and 40° N., and in 

 the western parts of those seas. 



The first allusion to this genus occurs in Piso's " Historia Naturalis 

 Brasilia^," printed at Amsterdam in 1648. In this book maybe found an 

 identifiable though rough figure of the American species, accompanied by 

 a few lines of description, which, though good, when the fact that they 

 were written in the seventeenth century is brought to mind, are of no value 

 for critical comparison. 



The name given to the Brazilian Sail-fish by Marcgrave, the talented 

 young German who described the fishes in the book referred to. and who 

 afterwards sacrificed his life in exploring the unknown fields of American 

 zoology, was Giicbucu brasilicnsibus. The use of the name Giicbucu is 

 interesting, since it gives a clew to the derivation of the name " Boohoo," 

 by which this fish, and probably the Spear-fishes, are known to English- 

 speaking sailors in the tropical Atlantic. 



Sail-fishes were observed in the East Indies by Renard and Valentijn, 

 explorers of that region from 1680 to 1720, and by other eastern voyagers. 

 No species of the genus was, however, systematically described until 1786, 

 when a stuffed specimen from the Indian Ocean, eight feet long, was taken 

 to London, where it still remains in the collections of the British Museum. 

 From this si^ecimen M. Broussonet prepared a description, giving it the 

 name Scomber gladins, rightly regarding it as a species allied to the 

 mackerel. 



From the time of Marcgrave until 1872 it does not appear that any 

 zoologist had any opportunity to study a Sail-fish from America, or even 

 from the Atlantic ; yet in Gunther's Catalogue, the name H. americamis 



