OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 



45 



aspect of the fish in its living state. An half-grown 

 specimen of this rare type will be found among the spirit- 

 preserved series belonging to the Day Collection, and the 

 cast of an adult in the Buckland Museum. The second 

 British representative of the Trichiuridcz is the so-called 

 Scabbard-fish {Lepidopus caudatus), No. 56, a fish of much 

 larger dimensions, attaining to a length of five or six feet or 

 more, its body in shape being very elongated, flattened, or 

 sword-like, and, as witnessed by the writer off the coast of 

 Portugal, flashing when freshly taken from the water like 

 burnished silver. In the spring months of the year, when 



:# 



. 1 



FIG. 10. — silver HAIRTAIL (Trichiurus Upturns). 



it migrates from the deeper waters of the ocean towards the 

 shore for the purpose of spawning, it is very plentiful along 

 the coasts of southern Europe, and there constitutes an 

 important fishery. The Scabbard-fish is distributed abun- 

 dantly throughout the tropical waters of the Atlantic, and has 

 been taken so far south as the Cape and New Zealand ; 

 examples recorded from the last-named station are, ap- 

 parently, as is the case with British specimens, accidental 

 wanderers only from warmer latitudes. A dried specimen, 

 and also a cast of the Scabbard-fish, will be found in the 

 Buckland Museum. 



