[59] MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF THE SWORD-FISHES. 347 
would be inconsistent with a theory that it had been brought near 
shore by a Sword-fish. 
Still another, Rhombochirus osteochir, seems equally inseparable from 
Tetrapturus albidus. This fact is known to the Cuban fishermen, who 
call it by the name Pega de los Agujas, the parasite of the Spear-fish. 
The two species last referred to are figured in the plates accompanying 
this article. 
Perhaps the two species are not so fixed in their likings that they will 
change from Xiphias to Tetrapturus. My friend Professor Giglioli, 
of Florence, who speaks of Rh. brachyptera as a fish new to the Mediter- 
ranean, obtained from Taranto a specimen said to have been taken 
from the gills (operculum ?) of Tetrapturus belone. 
These parasites probably prefer to cling with their curious suckers to 
the hard exterior surface of the opercular flap of the Sword-fish. 
K.—THE FISHERIES. 
46.—THE LOCATION OF THE FISHING GROUNDS. 
In what has already been said regarding the dates of appearance and 
local movements of the Sword-fish in our waters may be found all the 
facts relating to the location of the fishing grounds, for the fishermen 
follow the Sword-fish wherever they appear to be most abundant. 
Early in the season the Sword-fish are most abundant west of Mon- 
tauk Point, and later they spread over the shoal-grounds along the coast 
even as far north as the Nova Scotia Banks. They may be found wher- 
ever mackerel and menhaden are abundant, as may be inferred from 
the almost universal practice of carrying Sword-fish irons on board of 
mackerel vessels. 
I quote the statements of three or four correspondents who have taken 
the trouble to interview the fishermen of their respective localities. 
Mr. E. G. Blackford writes: “The following information I received 
from an old swordfisherman, a man whose statements may be relied 
on. The season first opens early in June in the neighborhood of Sandy 
Hook, and continues along the coast as far east as Martha’s Vineyard 
and Nantucket Shoals until about the middle of September. They are 
said to have been caught as far north as Cape Sable. At the first cold 
wind blowing in September they disappear, and are not found again on 
the coast that season.” This is the statement of a New York man. 
Capt. Benjamin Ashby, of Noank, Conn., informs me that the Sword- 
fish vessels of Noank and New London are accustomed to leave the 
home-port about the 6th of July, and throughout the month they find 
fish most abundant between Block Island and Noman’s Land; in Au- 
gust between Noman’s Land and the South Shoal Light Ship. They first 
meet the fish twenty to twenty-five miles southeast of Montauk Point. 
In August and September they are found on George’s Banks. There is 
no fishing after the snow begins to fly. 
