GEN. XIPHIAS. THE SWORD-FISH. 201 



of which, the Xiphias Proper, has no ventral fins : 

 one species alone is known, which is frequently scent 

 on the British shores ; it is the 



(S^A8.) X.ffladius. The Sword-fish. (PL XII.) 

 The name which has heen attached to this fish, in 

 nearly all languages, indicates the most striking fea- 

 ture in its formation, namely, the cutting and pointed 

 blade, a projection of its muzzle, which threatens 

 everything which approaches it. The Sword-fish 

 attains a great size, so that by the ancients it was 

 classed among the cetaceous or whale tribes, Cete; by 

 which term, however, they meant nothing more than 

 a very large inhabitant of the ocean. It frequently 

 attains the length of ten and twelve feet, and has 

 been recorded as long as eighteen and twenty. The 

 Mediterranean is regarded as its natural habitation : 

 here it is everywhere fished, though it most abounds 

 on the shores of Sicily. Small specimens are com- 

 mon at Genoa, where the sword is cut ofi* previous 

 to their being exposed in the markets ; they are also 

 brought to Nice throughout the year, but especially 

 in spring, weighing between 200 and 350 lbs. From 

 the Mediterranean this fish is supposed to issue, 

 and to wend its way principally northwards along 

 the European shores, and southward down the coast 

 of Africa ; it is, however, also caught on the North 

 American shores. It was introduced into the British 

 Fauna as far back as the days of Sibbald : Pennant 

 mentions one captured in Flintshire in 1785 ; and 

 another found off the Caermarthen coast, which 

 weighed 751b., with the sword three feet long. 



