DESCRIPTION OF A SWORDFISH. 6$ 



ferry, and purchased by Mr Macintyre, merchant, 

 who sent it to Edinburgh, where it now is, having 

 been stuffed under the care of Mr Wilson at the 

 College. On dissection, it proved to be a female, 

 and in the stomach the remains of small fish were 

 discovered. 



Two other specimens of Xiphias, probably of 

 this species, are recorded by naturalists, as having 

 occurred on the British shores ; one by Sir Robert 

 Sibbald ; the other by Pennant, as having been 

 washed ashore at Langhearn in Carmarthenshire. 

 The figure of the latter author, I suspect, has been 

 depicted by the fancy of the ignorant artist he 

 employed, to whom the public are also partly in- 

 debted for the Trifurcated Hake, an animal lately 

 proved, by the accurate Donovan, never to have 

 existed. The only figure to which we can refer 

 with any confidence, is that given by Rondeletius, 

 who, however, has omitted the posterior anal fin : 

 but it agrees in other points so well, that I have 

 named it, in honour of him as the first discoverer, 

 Xiphias Rondeletii. 



The head was much lacerated : I therefore 

 suspect that part of the branchiostegous mem- 

 brane has been torn away ; this, however, future 

 observations will decide. The superior process of 

 the tail was also incomplete, although there can 

 be little doubt, from what remains, that it was 

 considerably larger than the lower part. 



