42 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



rostrum for turning up the sand in search of worms and 

 other bottom food ; the fact, however, that Pilchards, 

 Cuttles, and other pelagic forms have generally been found 

 within the stomachs of examples that have been dissected, 

 tends to negative this interpretation. As another alterna- 

 tive it might be suggested that the Sword-fish uses its 

 weapon for securing food, as the Saw-fish (Pristis anti- 

 quorum) is reported to do its saw, namely, by swimming, 

 or metaphorically running a-muck among the shoals of 

 smaller fish, numbers of which, by vigorously applied 

 lateral strokes of its rostrum, the Saw-fish thus disables and 

 then devours at leisure. The irreconcilable enmity subsist- 

 ing between the Sword-fish and all species of the Whale 

 tribe is a matter of tradition, the Fox-Shark {Alopecias), 

 being its reputed ally in its attacks upon the leviathan of 

 the deep. Many instances have been recorded in 

 which Sword-fishes have attacked moving vessels, probably 

 mistaking their submerged hulks for their hereditary foe. 

 In the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons is the 

 section of the bow of a South-Sea whaler, the solid wood 

 of which has been transfixed by the rostrum of one of these 

 fish to the depth of thirteen and a half inches, the weapon 

 having luckily broken off in the hole, and so prevented 

 what might have proved a dangerous leak. In the Buck- 

 land Museum will be found two fine casts of specimens of 

 the Sword-fish, each measuring over eight feet in length, 

 captured respectively at Ramsgate, and Leigh near South- 

 end ; and also the portion of a ship's side, which had been 

 pierced, first through a sheathing of one inch thickness, next 

 through a three-inch plank, and beyond that into four and 

 a half inches of solid timber, by the sword of the tropical 

 form (Histiophorus). It was estimated by a mechanical 



