14 



Translation, 1834) does not mention the presence of teeth. This, if correctly 

 stated, would place the specimen in the genus Histiophorus, as the entire 

 interior of what may be considered the buccal cavity, is covered with almost 

 microscopic teeth, so placed, that the food (supposed by me to consist chiefly of 

 the cuttle fish), when seized or impaled, cannot escape. I would add, that Dr. 

 Gunther, in his description of the specific characters of the Histiophorus, as 

 distinguishing it from Xiphias, says "small teeth in the jaws and on the palate 

 bones ; none on the vomer.' 1 '' Now the teeth, in the specimen before the Society, 

 are developed on the mucous rrembrane covering the hard palate and lower 

 jaw, and are, in no sense, in the jaws ; so that if the specimen described by 

 Dr. Gunther had been macerated, and the osseous surfaces denuded of the 

 mucous membrane and periosteum, there would not have been- the vestige 

 either of teeth or socket. I find from a specimen of the eel and hapuka, now 

 on the table, that the system of dentition strictly resembles that of the Sword- 

 Fish (Histiophorus ). The teeth are so placed as to be pointed from before 

 backwards, allowing the food, or the finger, to pass towards the throat without 

 obstruction, but rendering a retreat impossible, at least in the living animal, 

 when feeding, and probably very hungry. This is probably intended to 

 compensate for the want of cutting (incisor), holding (canine), grinding (molar) 

 teeth. The muscles acting on the jaws (temporal and masseter) are of 

 enormous size, red in colour, and resembling the muscles in the carnivorous 

 mammalia. 



When I left Scotland, in 1840, there was, in my brother's private museum, 

 undoubtedly the finest and most extensive collection of the skeletons of fishes in 

 Europe, amongst others, the skeleton of a Sword-Fish. The specimen was 

 taken in the Firth of Forth, and after exhibition, was purchased by my 

 brother. A hurried examination of the anatomy was made, and I think 

 plaster casts of the viscera taken — which, I may remark, is an admirable mode 

 of preserving. The preparation of the skeleton was handed over to me. It 

 proved rather a heavy affair, owing to the complete saturation of every texture 

 with a fine fluid oil. It was too large for any of the glazed cases in the 

 museum, and was accordingly placed on the top of the cases. I may state that 

 this skeleton always appeared to me to present rather an ideal, than a natural, 

 form, as it seemed out of proportion, and deficient in framework. 



The fragments I have now presented to the Colonial Museum, are part, 

 therefore, of the second specimen that has come under my personal notice. 



In Dr. Giinther's Catalogue, Vol. ii., 1860, the Xiphiidm form the 

 eighteenth family of the A canthopterygian, or soft-finned fishes, divided into 

 two genera, containing eight species. The British Museum appears to possess 

 only the following specimens : — 



I. Xiphias. 



(a.) Seven feet long. Stuffed. Margate. 

 (6.) Half-grown. Stuffed, 

 (c.) Upper jaw of a large specimen. 



(d.) Six inches long. Not a good specimen. Caught in Long. 

 22° W., Lat. 2° K Presented by J. B. Jukes, Esq. 



II. Histiophorus. 

 Herchellii — 



(a.) Eleven feet long. Stuffed. Table Bay. Purchased of 



Mr. Smuts. Type of the species. 

 (6.) Head (thirty -seven inches long), 

 (c.) Anterior portion of a skull of a specimen of the same size. 



Gladius- 



