HOW FISHES FEED. 89 



The teeth of the sword-fish, it should be re- 

 marked, are either small or vestigial. 



Those who have the good fortune to be within 

 easy reach of a museum, where a skeleton of the 

 sword-fish is exhibited such as the Natural 

 History Museum, London should make a pil- 

 grimage thereto for the purpose of inspecting 

 the wonderful vertebral column of the sword-fish. 

 It has undergone great and peculiar modifications 

 obviously designed to give strength and power to 

 resist the shocks of the violent and deadly charges 

 which the living fish is known to make. 



Two fish bearing a superficial resemblance 

 to the sword-fish are worthy of mention here. 

 These are the gar-pike (Belone) and the half-beak 

 (Hemirhamphus). Both, however, differ from the 

 first-mentioned in that it is not the upper jaw 

 only .that is elongated but both jaws. In the 

 gar-pike the upper jaw is longer than the 

 lower. They capture their prey whilst skim- 

 ming along the surface of the water. In the 

 half-beaks the proportions in the length of the 

 jaws are the reverse of what obtains in the 

 gar-pike, the lower jaw being longer than the 

 upper. 



It is interesting here to note that in all three 

 forms of these long-beaked fishes the jaws are of 

 equal length, and not elongated in the young. 

 In the young gar-pike, strangely enough, for a 

 short while after the increased length of the 

 jaws has begun, the lower is longer than the 

 upper jaw. Thus, during this stage it resembles 

 the half-beak (Hemirhamphus). As we have just 

 remarked, the resemblance between the sword- 



