128 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 
are entirely wanting, and even the internal bones (pelvie girdle) for 
their support. On each side of the tail is a wide projecting keel. 
The Swordfish (Xiphias gladius). 
Called broadbill swordfish by anglers. The upper jaw is prolonged 
into a much longer sword than in the marlin-spike fish. The lower jaw 
does not reach over a quarter or a fifth of the distance from the eye to 
the tip of the sword. The sword is flattened and sharp edged. The 
first dorsal fin is high, curved and short, being much higher than it is 
long. The second is very small and is back on the tail; its height is 
less than the diameter of the eye. The anal is also divided into two 
parts. The first anal resembles the first dorsal in shape, but is much 
a 
Fig. 73. ‘The swordfish (Niphias gladius). 
smaller and situated behind the middle of the body. The second anal 
is a little in front of the second dorsal. The pectoral fins are about as 
long as the height of the first dorsal. The body is metallic purplish in 
color above and dusky below. It has no cross bars of color. 
In the young the dorsal and anal are each continuous as a single long 
fin, but as the fish grows older the central part of the fin disappears 
leaving only the two ends. 
The swordfish is the object of extensive fisheries on the Atlantic coast, 
where from 3,000 to 6,000 are taken every year. On our coast it is 
regarded more as a game fish than as a commercial fish, though the few 
that are caught find a good market. It reaches a weight of over 600 
pounds. In the Tuna Club handbook for 1917 the largest recorded 
taken with hght tackle weighed 362 pounds, but I believe that record 
has since been very much beaten. 
The swordfish is the swashbuckler of the sea, attacking with ready 
sword everything that floats. It must not be confused with the saw- 
fish, which belongs to the group of sharks and skates. 
THE BUTTER FISHES. 
(Family Stromaterde.) 
Belonging to this family are the butter fishes, or harvest fishes of 
our Atlantie coast, and the so-called pampano of California. They 
are only distantly related to the mackerel group, but more nearly 
related than to any other group that will be treated of in these papers, 
and so are here included. The family is represented in California by 
one species. It has no separate first, or spinous, dorsal, and no ventral 
fins. The body is deep and thin (compressed). 
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