144 ACANTHOPTERYGIL 



section of the bow of a South Sea whaler, which has been penetrated through 

 13^- inches of solid timber by the snout of a swordfish, which latter is 12 inches long 

 and 5 inches in circumference. When H.M.S. " Leopard " was repaired in 1725, 

 after her return from the coast of Guinea, it was found that a swordfish had 

 pierced her outer sheathing, 1 inch in thickness, next a 3-inch plank, and 

 finally 4|- inches further into a solid beam. 



The foregoing facts seem to be sufficient to demonstrate that in numerous 

 instances swordfishes have attacked vessels and occasioned leaks. The reason 

 why they should act thus leads us to inquire what can be the common use 

 of such a weapon to a fish which merely possesses small teeth in its jaws ? 

 The ancients asserted that it transfixes fish with its snout for the purpose of 

 obtaining food — a process which has been compared by one writer to skewering 

 larks — but without being able to obtain its prey. We have likewise been 

 informed that the proper use of this sword- like projection is to turn up the 

 sand, &c, to hunt for minute sea creatures on which it lives. If this long 

 process is intended simply for digging up sand, it seems curious why it should 

 have been so rigid, for a softer, wider, and more tactile organ, such as exists 

 in the snout of the sturgeon, would be better suited for such a purpose. I 

 would suggest — first, that the rostrum is not intended for turning up the sand : 

 secondly, that it is intended entirely for offensive purposes, or to obtain food : 

 and lastly, that these fish do not solely live upon " minute sea creatures," 

 although, doubtless, they occasionally devour cuttles, sepia, &c. 



Cuvier informs us that the European form (Xiphias) which he examined 

 contained the remains of fish. I was on the Madras beach on the evening of 

 February 15th, 1867, when I saw a swordfish, Histiopliorus gladius, 9 feet in 

 length, being carried by two fishermen towards their huts ; for, although this 

 fish is unmarketable, their families consume it. Its long back fin was of a 

 bright Prussian blue, covered with large dark spots ; hence its native name 

 Myl-meen, or "peacock- fish." I purchased the example, and found inside it a 

 full-sized Indian mackerel (Scomber microlepidotus), two large half -beaks 

 (Hemiraynphi), and numerous small fish. Still, eating merely small forms would 

 scarcely seem to account for the necessity of its being provided with an elongated, 

 sword-like snout, which, added to the great rapidity of its movements, would 

 render it a truly formidable opponent. Belonius tells us that shoals of tunnies 

 (Orcynus thynnus), in the Mediterranean, are as much alarmed at the presence 

 of a swordfish as a flock of sheep are at the sight of a wolf. It pursues them 

 with great pertinacity, and transfixes them with its snout : but recent authors 

 have not remarked on its doing such to obtain food. In Daniel's " Rural Sports" 

 we read that " in the Severn, near Worcester, a man bathing was struck, and 

 absolutely received his death wound from a swordfish. The fish was caught 

 immediately afterwards, so that the fact was ascertained beyond a doubt." 



It was thus evident that the swordfish eats other fish ; that it can kill them 

 by transfixion : and it has been known to vent its strength upon a human being. 

 A step further takes us to the fact that it will attack even whales, and, as it eats 

 flesh, we may perhaps conclude that hunger, induces them to do so for the 

 purpose of obtaining food. Capt. Crow, on a voyage to Memel, tells us that one 

 morning during a calm, when near the Hebrides, all hands were called up at 

 3 a.m. to witness a battle between several of the fish termed thrashers or fox 

 sharks (Alopecias vulpes) and some swordfish, on the one side, and an enormous 

 whale on the other. As soon as the whale's back appeared above the water the 

 thrashers, springing several yards into the air, descended with great violence 

 upon the object of their rancour, and inflicted upon him the most severe blows 

 with their long tails, the sounds of which resembled the reports of muskets 

 fired at a distance. The swordfish in turn attacked the distressed whale, stabbing 

 from below ; and, thus beset on all sides and wounded, the water around him 

 was dyed with blood. Couch was of opinion that as the swordfish has no teeth 

 to tear the flesh, and he supposed it could only swallow its food whole, it must 

 have been gratifying its appetite with blood. At a meeting of the Linnean 

 Society in 1881, Mr. Howard Saunders observed that he had personally 



