XIPHIAS. SWORDFISH. 



Generic Character. 



Caput maxilla superiore ter- 

 minatum r ostro ensiformi , 



Os edentulum. 

 Membr. branch, radiis octo. 

 Corpus teretiusculum, ale- 

 pidotum. 



Head with the upper jaw 

 terminating in a sword- 

 shaped snout. 



Mouth without teeth. 



Gill-Membrane eight-rayed. 



Body roundish, without 

 scales. 



COMMON SWORDFISH. 



Xiphias Gladius. X. pinna dor soli postice attenuata. 



Swordfish with the dorsal fin attenuated at the hind part. 



Xiphias Gladius. Lin. Syst. Nat. p. 432. 



Xiphias. Gesner. Will. Jonst. &c. 



Gladius. Aldrov. L 3. c. 21. p. 332. 



Sicilian Sword-Fish. Penn. Brit. Zool. 4. p. 141. pi. 2o\ 



HE Swordfish, which is a native of the Me- 

 diterranean, and is mostly found in the Sicilian sea, 

 grows to a very large size, sometimes measuring 

 twenty feet in length, and is of an active and pre- 

 dacious disposition, feeding on the smaller kind of 

 fishes, which it kills by piercing with its sword- 

 shaped snout. The body is long, round, and 

 gradually tapers towards the tail : the head flattish, 

 the mouth wide, both jaws ending in a point, but 

 the upper stretched to a great distance beyond the 



