9/ 

 Of these species M. herscheli from South Africa is, according to Lutken— , the same 



species as T. brevirostris of the Indian Ocean, and according to K. H. Barnard H. gladius is 



a synonym of H. indicus. 



The lack of agreement and state of complete confusion among the opinions of the various 

 authors may be thought to be due perhaps to the fact that these fish are very large, handling and 

 study of thenn is inconvenient, and the preservation of type specimens is difficult. It is thought 

 that another important cause is that in many cases the specinnens used in the studies were 

 incomplete. In many cases the commercial fishermen customarily cut off and throw away the 

 long snout, which is without any practical value. For example, it appears that the two species 

 recorded by Jordan and Snyder from Japan were based on studies made of incomplete specimens 

 at Misaki in Kanagawa Prefecture. 



The spearfishes taken in Fornnosa are distinguished by the connmercial operators as 

 follows: 



1. red spearfish - akakajiki or aka /striped marlin/* 



2. black marlin - kurokajiki or kurokawa kajiki 



3. white marlin - shirokajiki or shirokawa kajiki 



4. sailfish - bar en or bashSkajiki 



5. a species with no definite name ( furaikajiki ) /the shortnosed spearfish/ 



6. broadbill - tsun or mekajiki 



Among these, species 1 to 5 belong to the fannily Istiophoridae, 6 belongs to the family 

 Xiphiidae. The sailfish, shortnosed spearfish, jind broadbill, because of their peculiar form, 

 are easily distinguished from the other three, and are also easily differentiated from one another. 

 The problem is in whether species 1 to 3 are, as Dr. Tanaka has said, actually one species or 

 two species or whether the three should all be treated as separate species. 



According to Jordan and Evermann, the genus Istiophorus includes four species from the 

 Indo- Pacific region, with perhaps a still different species from Formosa, but the sailfish of 

 Formosa is the same species as that of Japaji proper and no other species is known up to the 

 present. 



The red marlin /stiiped marlin/, black marlin, and white marlin also have clear morpho- 

 logical characteristics and can easily be distinguished by a slightly practiced eye, the differentia- 

 tion being extremely easy even in the case of specimens which have had their heads and tails 

 cut off, 



B. Morphological Comparison 



As has been stated, the spearfishes have conspicuous external characters which make it 

 easy for an experienced eye to distinguish between them at a glance, but it was thought that 

 n-iorphologically, rather than such external elements as coloring and nnarkings, internal elements 

 such as differences in skeleton and musculature are nnore important and fundamental. Accord- 

 ingly it is believed that external morphological diffefences should be corroborated by comparisons 

 of skeleton and nnusculature, ajid at the same time it is thought that a considerable contribution 

 to taxonomy may result from these connparisons. 



With the object of eliminating, insofar as possible, observational errors due to individual 

 peculiarities, the author wished to inspect and dissect as many specimens as possible, however, 

 it was difficult to tell how many specimens would be sufficient, and, except in particular cases, 

 the individual peculiarities are not striking enough to require consideration; consequently dis- 

 sections have been performed upon only the following numbers of specimens. 



2.' Jordan and Snyder. Jour. Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ., Tokyo, 1901. 



* Translator's note: Akakajiki , literally "red spearfish", is evidently the name applied in 

 the Formosan fishery to the striped marlin, which is called in Japan makajiki, literally "true 

 apearfish. " 



