[17] MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF THE SWORD-FISHES. 305 
that they were written in the seventeenth century is brought to mind, 
are of no value for critical comparison. [See paragraph 64.| 
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 afterward sacrificed his life in exploring the unknown fields of 
American zoology, was Guebucu brasiliensibus. The use of the name 
Guebucu is interesting, since it gives a clue 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 Atlantie. 
Sail-fishes were observed in the East Indies by Renard and Valentijn, 
explorers of that region from 1680 to 1720, and by other eastern voy- 
agers. 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 specimen M. Broussonet prepared a 
description, giving it the name Scomber gladius, rightly regarding it as 
a species allied to the mackerel. In 1803 Lacépéde established the genus 
Histiophorus for the reception of this species. 
When Cuvier and Valenciennes published the eighth volume of their 
Natural History of Fishes, they ignored the name gladius, which had 
been given to the East Indian fish by Broussonet, redescribing it under 
the name Histiophorus indicus. At the same time they founded another 
species upon the figure in Piso’s Natural History of Brazil, already 
mentioned, This they called Histiophorus americanus. 
In a pa printed in 1833, Dr. Nardo, of Venice, proposed the estab- 
lishment of a new genus allied to Tetrapturus and Xiphias, to be called 
Skeponopodus. In this he ineluded the fish described by Maregrave, 
under the name Skeponopodus guebucu, and also a form observed by him 
in the Adriatic in 1829, which he called S. typus. Tam not aware that 
ichthyologist have yet learned what this may have been.* 
From the time of Marcgrave until 1872 it does not appear that any 
zoologist had an opportunity to study a Sail-fish from America, or even 
from the Atlantic, yet in Giinther’s “Catalogue” the name H. americanus 
is discarded and the species of America is assumed to be identical with 
that of the Indian Ocean.t 
Giinther restores Lacépéde’s name, H. gladius, for the Indian species. 
Possibly, indeed probably, this name will be found to include the Sail- 
fish of our own coast. At present, however, it seems desirable to retain 
a separate name. To unite species from widely distant localities with- 
*Tsis, 1833, Heft iv, pp. 415-419. 
t The specimens in the British Museum are catalogued as follows: 
a. Eight feet long; stuffed. Indian Ocean. Type of the specics, 
b. Seven feet long; stuffed. Cape of Good Hope. 
c. Dorsal fin. N.S. Wales(?). Presented by Dr. G. Bennett, 
d. Snout; dried. 
S, Mis. 29-20 
a 
