130 TELEOSTEI. ACANTHOPTEBrGII . 



Family XIV. XIPHIID^E. 



Sword-Jish. 



Branchiostegals seven ; pseudobranchise. Eyes lateral. Body 

 compressed, the upper jaw (comprising ethmoid, vomer, and pre- 

 uiaxiDaries) produced into a long, sword-shaped process ; cleft of 

 mouth deep. Teeth absent or rudimentary. One or two dorsal 

 fins, without any distinct spinous portion ; ventrals, when present, 

 thoracic and rudimentary. Scales absent or in the form of rudi- 

 mentary dermal productions. Air-bladder present. Pyloric appen- 

 dages, when present, numerous. 



Sword-fishes are well known to occasionally attack vessels in 

 the Indian Ocean. Instances of the sides of vessels in the Bay of 

 Bengal having been perforated by the snouts of these fishes are 

 recorded in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (ii, 

 p. 647, andiv, p. 411). A case was described in the Indian ' Daily 

 News ' (November 1874), in which the snout of a sword-fish had 

 pierced both the copper and the timbers of a ship's side on the 

 voyage between Bombay and Calcutta. See also a paper by Dr. 

 J. E. Gray (A. M. N. H. 1871, viii, pp. 338, 339), " On the injury 

 inflicted on ships by the Broad-finned Sword-fish of the Indian 

 Ocean." 



The very young of XipJiias has a long Belone-Yike beak ; the 

 supraorbital edge bears conical prominences, there is no occipital 

 spine, and two short pointed teeth project at the angle of the 

 preopercle. The young of Histioplwrus has the jaws comparatively 

 shorter, the supraorbital edge very finely or not denticulated, a 

 bony spine on each side of the occiput and at the angle of the 

 preopercle. The genus Xiphias, which has no ventral fins, has 

 not been found in the seas of India. 



Geographical Distribution. Tropical and subtropical seas. 



1. Genus HISTIOPHORUS, Lace'p. 



Syn .Notistium, Herm. ; Tetrapturus (Rafin.), Guv. & Val. ; Zan- 

 clurus, Swains. 



Body elongate. Upper jaw conical, much prolonged, and con- 

 siderably longer than the lower. Minute teeth on the jaws and 

 palatines; vomer edentulous. Two dorsal and two anal fins, the 

 anterior of each of which is the longer ; ventrals in the form of 

 one, two, or three rays. 



The height of the dorsal fin, in comparison with that of the 

 the PearS ^ mUCh m re comiderable in the yon than in 



Col. N. Pike in the Transactions of the Eoyal Society of Arts 



and Science* of Mauritius,' vii, 1873, p. 32, remarks as follows :- 



This fish is a beautiful sight in the water. It has a habit of 



