TALES OF FISHES 



fish came up through the dense mass and fell flat 

 on its side, striking many fish with the sides of its 

 sword. He has at one time picked up as much as 

 a bushel of herrings thus killed by a swordfish on 

 Georges Banks. 



But little is known regarding their time and 

 place of breeding. They are said to deposit their 

 eggs in large quantities on the coasts of Sicily, and 

 European writers give their spawning-time occurring 

 the latter part of spring and the beginning of sunamer. 

 In the Mediterranean they occur of all sizes from 

 four hundred pounds down, and the young are so 

 plentiful as to become a common article of food. 



M. Raymond, who brought to Cuvier a specimen 

 of aistiophorn four inches long, taken in January, 

 1829, in the Atlantic, between the Cape of Good 

 Hope and France, reported that there were good 

 numbers of young sailfish in the place where this 

 was taken. 



Meunier, quoting Spollongain, states that the 

 swordfish does not approach the coast of Sicily ex- 

 cept in the season of reproduction; the males are 

 then seen pursuing the females. It is a good time 

 to capture them, for when the female has been 

 taken the male lingers near and is easily approached. 

 The fish are abundant in the Straits of Messina from 

 the middle of April to the middle of September; 

 early in the season they hug the Calabrian shore, 

 approaching from the north; after the end of June 

 they are most abundant on the Sicilian shore, ap- 

 proaching from the south. 



From other circumstances, it seems certain that 

 there are spawning-grounds in the seas near Sicily 



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