660 



Crotfurn of $ahtral & 



characteristic of which is along pointed beak, 

 constituting one third of its whole length, 

 and shaped like a straight sword ; being a 

 most powerful offensive weapon. They are 

 placed by Cuvier among the Scomberidce, or 

 Mackerel family. The common Sword-fish 

 (XipMas gladius) is sometimes more than 

 twenty feet long, the beak included. It 

 swims with greater swiftness than almost 

 any inhabitant of the deep, and is possessed 

 of vast muscular strength. It attacks, and 

 generally puts to flight, the smaller cetaceous 

 animals, notwithstanding its food is usually 

 vegetable. Its flesh is good ; and in some 

 countries the fishery is an object of import- 

 ance. It is taken with the harpoon, and 



usually tears the net, if enclosed. It has 

 not unfrequently happened that a Sword- 

 fish has struck a ship, and driven its sharp 

 weapon through the planking. It is very 

 abundant in the Mediterranean, but less so 

 in the Atlantic. Notwithstanding its for- 

 midable weapon, its great strength, and its 

 almost incredible celerity, a small crusta- 

 ceous animal penetrates the flesh of the 

 Swordfish, and sometimes so torments it, 

 that it dashes itself on the shore with mortal 

 violence. In the Mediterranean it is regu- 

 larly pursued by the fishermen ; and its flesh 

 is much esteemed in some places as an article 

 of food. The female approaches the shores 

 in the latter part of spring or beginning of 

 summer. Mr. Gray has described a fine 

 species of Sword-fish from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, in which the skin is strengthened with 

 bony spicula. It is nearly eleven feet long, 

 and having been found in Table Bay during 

 the visit of Sir John Herschel (the astro- 

 nomer), has been named Tctrapturus Her- 

 schelii, in compliment to him. It belongs to 

 a genus subdivided from Xiphias by its pos- 

 sessing ventral fins ; the caudal fin is fur- 

 nished on each side with two small promi- 

 nent crests. The specimen is in the collection 

 of the British Museum. 



SYLVIA : SYLVIAD^E. The Sylviadce, 

 or Warblers, are a family of small birds, with 

 rather long and slender bills, witli the tip 

 slightly curved and toothed ; and it contains 

 a large proportion of the species which are 

 most remarkable for their power of song. 

 " The chief peculiarity," observes Mr. Swain- 

 Bon, " which runs through this numerous 

 family, is the very small size and delicate 

 structure of its individuals. Excepting the 

 Humming-birds, we find among these ele- 

 gant little creatures the smallest birds in the 

 creation. The diminutive Golden-crests, the 

 Nightingale, the Whitethroat, and the Wood- 

 wren, are all well-known examples of ge- 

 nuine Warblers, familiar to the British na- 

 turalist. The groups of this extensive family, 

 spread over all the habitable regions of the 

 globe, are destined to perform an important 



part in the economy of nature : to them 

 appears intrusted the subjugation of those in- 

 numerable minute insects which lurk witliiu 

 the buds, the foliage, or the flowers of plants ; 

 and, thus protected, escape that destruction 

 from swallows, to which they are only ex- 



posed during flight. The diminutive size 

 of such insects renders them unfit for the 

 nourishment of the thrushes and the larger 

 insectivorous birds, while their number and 

 variety only become apparent when the 

 boughs are shaken and their retreat dis- 

 turbed. How enormous then would be their 

 multiplication, had not nature provided 

 other races of beings to check their increase I 

 No birds appear more perfectly adapted for 

 this purpose than the Warblers." The same 

 writer then notices their arrival, for the 

 most part, on the first appearance of spring, 

 when the insect world is called into life and 

 activity by the renewal of vegetation ; and 

 their departure towards autumn, when the 

 insect hosts diminish, and consequently no 

 longer require the agency of these little birds 

 to keep their numbers within due bounds. 

 He remarks also, that as different localities 

 are assigned to different tribes of insects, so 

 a similar diversity of haunts is allotted to 

 different groups of Warblers. [See WAR- 

 BLER.] 



SYNALLAXIS. The name given to a 

 genus of birds by Vieillot, placed by Mr. 

 Swainson in the family of Certhiadce. Their 

 generic character is thus described: Bill 

 short, strong, and straight ; both mandibles 

 of equal thickness, and much compressed : 

 wings short, and much rounded ; the pri- 

 maries scarcely exceeding the tertials : tail 

 broad and long, either granulated or cune- 

 ated ; the wtbs loose, the shafts rather rigid, 

 the tips lanceolate : feet very large : tarsus 

 lengthened : the claws slender, acute, and 

 slightly curved. The SYNALLAXIS GARRULUS 

 is given as an example of the genus. Colour 

 of the plumage : brown ; beneath whitish ; 

 feathers on the front of the head rigid, 

 pointed, and rufous; lines before and behind 

 the eye whitish ; tail rounded. This bird 

 is remarkable for its very singular nest, 

 which in the woodland scenery of Bahia 

 (Brazil) forms a striking object. It is built 

 in low trees, formed externally of dried 

 sticks, usually three or four feet long, and 

 resembling at a distance a thick twist of 

 bean-stalks thrown in the branches by acci- | 

 dent. Sometimes two of these nests appear 

 as if joined together, and there is an opening 



