356 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Considerable quantities of Sword-fish are annually salted in barrels in Portland, Gloucester, 

 Boston, New Bedford, and New London. Sword-fish pickled in brine is in considerable demand 

 in certain sections of the country, and particularly in Lower Connecticut Valley, where a barrel 

 may be found in almost every grocery store. By many persons it is considered much more 

 palatable than salted mackerel. 



THE SAIL-FISH HISTIOPHOEUS AMERICANTJS. 



Strange as it may seem, the American species of Histiophorus has never been studied by an 

 ichthyologist, and no attempt has ever been made to describe it or to compare it carefully with 

 the similar species occurring in the Indian Ocean. The identity of the two has been assumed 

 by Dr. Gunther, 1 but since no American specimens have ever been seen by this authority, I hesi- 

 tate for the present to follow his lead. 



The history of the Sail-fish in ichthyological literature is as follows: 



The first allusion to the genus occurs in Piso's "Historia Naturalis Brasilia?," printed at 

 Amsterdam in 1648. In this book* may be found an identifiable though rough figure of the 

 American species, accompanied by a few lines of description, which, though good, when the fact 

 that they were written in the seventeenth century is brought to mind, are of no value for critical 

 comparison. 



The name given to the Brazilian Sail-fish by Marcgrave, the talented young German who 

 described the fishes in the book referred to, and who afterward sacrificed his life in exploring the 

 unknown fields of American zoology, was Guebucu brasiliensibm. The use of the name Guebucu is 

 interesting, since it gives a clew to the derivation of the name ''Boohoo," by which this fish, and 

 probably the Spear-fishes, are known to English-speaking sailors in the tropical Atlantic. 



Sail-fishes were observed in the East Indies by Renard and Valentijn, explorers of that region 

 from 1680 to 1720, and by other eastern voyagers. No species of the genus was, however, sys- 

 tematically described until 1786, when a stuffed specimen from the Indian Ocean, eight feet long, 

 was taken to London, where it still remains in the collections of the British Museum. From this 

 specimen M. Broussonet prepared a description, giving it the name Scomber gladiws, rightly 

 regarding it as a species allied to the mackerel. 



In 1803 Lac6pe<le established the genus Histiophorus for the reception of this species. . 



When Cuvier and Valenciennes published the eighth volume of their Natural History of 

 Fishes, they ignored the name gladius, which had been given to the East Indian fish by Brous- 

 sonet, redescribing it under the name Histiophorus indicus. At the same time they founded 

 another species upon the figure in Piso's Natural History of Brazil, already mentioned. This they 

 called Histiophorus americanus. 



'Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum, ii, 1860, p. 513. 



* 1648. Piso and MARCGRAVE : 



Historia Naturalis | lirasilim, | Auepicio et Beneficio | Illnstrisa. | Manritii Com. Nassau | illius Provincira et 

 Maris snmmi Profacti Adornata: | In qua | Non tan turn Plants) et Aninialia, Bed et In- ] digenarum morbi, ingenia et 

 mores describuntnr et | Iconibns qnngentns illustrantnr | (Elaborate engraved title-page, upon which the preceding 

 inscription is inserted upon a scroll, the following upon a shell.) Lvgdvn Batauorum, | Apud Franciscum Hackium, | 

 et | Amstelodami, | Apnd Lud. Elzevirium. 1648. | 1 pp. (13), 122, (2), (8), 293, (7). 



.Second title. 



Qnilielmi Pisonis, M. D. | Lugduno-Batavi, | de Medicina Brasiliensi | Libri Quatuor: [ I. Do Aere, Aquis <& 

 Locis | II. De Morbia Endemiis. | III. Venenatis & Antidotis. | IV. De Facultatibus Simplicium | et Georgi Marc- 

 gravi de Liebgtad, | Misnici German!, | Histories Rerum Natural nun | Brasilia) | Libri octo: | Quorum | TITS priores 

 agunt de Plantis. | Quart us de Piscibns. | Qnintns de Avibiis. | Sextns de Quadropedibus & Serpentibns. | Septimus de 

 Insectis. | Octavas de Ipsa Regione, & Illius Incolis. | Cum j Appeudice de Tapuyis, et Chilensibus. | loanues de 

 Lict, | Antwerpianns, | In ordinem digessit & Annotation addidit, & varies ab Anctore | Omigsa snpplevit & 

 Unotravit. 



