428 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Diagnosis of subfamily. 



XipMid fishes, with bodies somewhat compressed, sc'aleless, or in 

 youug state covered with rough granulations. Sword flattened hori- 

 zontally. Teeth absent. Pectorals sublateral. Pelvic arch and ven- 

 trals absent. A keel upon each side of the caudal peduncle. Air-blad- 

 der simple. Intestine long, sinuous. A single genus, XiPiiiAS, L. 



Genus Xiphias Artedi. 



Xiphias, ARfEDl, Genera Piscium, 1738, p. 29. 

 XipMas, Lixx. Syst. Nat. ed. x, 1758, p. 248; ed. xii, p. 4.32. 

 Xiphias, CuviEK, Regne Animal, 1817, p. 326, 1829, p. 20U. 

 Xiphian, GUNTHER, 1. c. 



Diagnosis of genus. 



Xiphiine fishes, with two dorsal fins in adult condition, the continu- 

 ous dorsal of the young having become rudimentary in its median por- 

 tion. Preoperculum spineless in adult, the large spine of the young 

 disappearing at an early age. Teeth absent "except upon the pharyn- 

 geal bones, which are covered with a villosity of extremely fine and 

 minute denticles." (Owen.) Xumber of dorsal rays probably variable. 

 Vertebrae 26 {Steindachner). Branchiostegals 7. Stomach siphonal, 

 pyloric caica very numerous. Gall-bladder large. 



Habitat. — Tropical ami temperate parts of the Atlantic, Mediter- 

 ranean, New Zealand, South Pacific, and South Sea. 



A single species of this genus is now knowu, Xijjhias gladius^ L. The 

 species recorded in Gunther's Catalogue of the Fishes in the British 

 Museum, vol. ii, p. 512, under the nanie Xipldas velifer, if not mythical, 

 is probably a Ristiopliorus. Lacepede's figure represents it with two 

 caudal carina?. 



17. Xiphias gladius, Limumis, 



Xiphias gladius, Lixx^icus, Systema NatnrfE, 10th ed. 1758, 1, p. 248: i2th ed. 

 1766, i, p. 432. (" Habitat in oceano Eui-opa}".) 



Bloch, Iclithyologie, i, 17b6, pi. Ixxvi, p. 23. (Habits, from statements 

 of Chevalier Hamilton. ) 



Gmelin^, Linn, Syst. Nat. 1788, p. 1149 (includes also under (B) the Ameri- 

 can Histiophorns.) 



Walbaum, Artedi, Genera Piscium, 1792, p. 207. 



Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss. 2d ed. 8vo. 1819, i, p. 538, fig. 2, pi. 24 (gro- 

 tesque figure). 



ScHNEiDEii, Bloch's Systema Ichthyologite, 1801, p. 93 (mentions occur- 

 rence in Baltic). 



Shaw, Zoology, 1804. 



Risso, Ichthyologie de Nice, 1830, p. 99 (obs. on habits) : Hist. Nat. Eu- 

 rope Meridionale, 1826-7, iii, p. 208. 



CuviER, Rtigne Animal, 1 ed. 1817, p. 326; 2d ed. 1829, p. 200: Griffitli's 

 ed. 1834, p. 187, \)\. xxvii, figa. 1, 2 (taken from Cuv. «fe Val. Hist. Nat. 

 Poiss. 9, V), Supl. p. 349. 



ScoRESBY, in Edinburg Phil. Journ. iii, p. 441 (vessel struck by sword-^ 

 fish). 



