330 FISHES. [Cuar. X. 
geners, it is spotted with blue. The fish from which the 
engraving has been made, was procured by Dr. Tem- 
THE SWORD-FISH (HISTIOPHORUS IMMACULATUOS), 
pleton, near Colombo. The species was previously 
known only by a single specimen captured in the 
Red Sea, by Ruppell, who conferred upon it the specific 
designation of “timmaculatus.” } 
AELIAN, in his graphic account of the strange forms 
presented by the fishes inhabiting the seas around 
Ceylon, says that one in particular is so grotesque in 
its configuration, that no painter would venture to 
depict it; its main peculiarity being that it has feet or 
claws rather than fins.? The annexed drawing? may 
1 Trans. Zool. Soc. ii. p. 71. Pl. 
15. 
2 Tid8as ye why xndas H wrepbyia. 
— Lib. xvi. ¢. 18. 
3 The fish from which this draw- 
ing of the Cheironectes was made, 
was taken near Colombo, and from 
the peeuliarities which it presents it 
is in all probability a new and unde- 
scribed specics. Dr. Girne has 
remarked, that in it, whilst the first 
and second dorsal spines are 
situated as usual over the eye (and 
form, one the angling bait of 
the fish, the other the crest 
above the nose), the third ig at un 
unusual distance from the second, 
and is not separated, as in the 
other species, from the soft fin by a 
notch. 
