330 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [42] 
striking many fish with the sides of its sword. He has at one time 
picked up as much as a bushel of herrings thus killed by a Sword-fish 
on George’s Banks. 
H.—REPRODUCTION. 
36.—LOCATION OF THE BREEDING GROUNDS. 
But little is known regarding their time and place of breeding. They 
are said to deposit their eggs in large quantities on the coasts of Sicily, 
and Eurepean writers give their spawning time as occurring the latter 
part of spring and the begmning of summer. In the Mediterranean 
they occur of all sizes from 400 pounds down, and the young are so 
plentiful as to be a common article of food. Except in this region the 
young are never taken; on our own coast, plentiful as they are, they 
are never seen less than 3 feet, and are usually much larger. M. Ray- 
naud, who brought to Cuvier a specimen of Histiophorus four inches 
long, taken in January, 1829, in the Atlantic, between the Cape of Good 
Hope and France, reported that there were great numbers of young 
Sail-fish in the place where this was taken.* . 
Old fishermen who have taken and dressed them by the hundreds as- 
sure me that they have never seen traces of spawn in them. The ab- 
sence of young fish and spawning females on the coast of North Americé 
would indicate that they do not breed with us. Judging from the lo- 
cations where young fish have been taken, it seems probably that they 
breed in the open ocean. (See paragraph 16, and the paper by Dr. 
Liitken in the Appendix, paragraph 64.) 
37.—HABITS OF THE SWORD-FISH IN THE BREEDING SEASON. 
Meunier, quoting Spallanzani, states that the Sword-fish does not 
approach the coast of Sicily except in the season of reproduction; the 
males, are then seen pursuing the females. It is a good time to capture 
them, for when the female has been taken the male lingers near and is 
easily approached. The fish are abundant in the Straits of Messina 
from the middle of April to the middle of September; early in the 
season they hug the Calabrian shore, approaching from the north ; after 
the end of June they are most abundant on the Sicilian shore, approach- 
ing from the south. : 
From other circumstances, it seems certain that there are spawning 
grounds in the sea near Sicily and Génoa, for from November to the Ist 
of March young ones are taken in the Straits of Messina, ranging in 
weight from half a pound to twelve pounds. 
*Cuv. & Val..Hist. Nat. Poiss.<viii, p. 305. 
tLes Grandes Péches, p.*142, 
