330 FISHES. [Chap. X. 



geners, it is spotted with blue. The fish from which the 

 engraving has been made, was procured by Dr. Tem- 



THE SWORD-FISH (HJSTIOPHORUS IMMACULATUS). 



pleton, near Colombo. The species was previously 

 known only by a single specimen captured in the 

 Eed Sea, by Eiippell, who conferred upon it the specific 

 designation of " immaculatus." 1 



^Elian, in his graphic account of the strange forms 

 presented by the fishes inhabiting the seas around 

 Ceylon, says that one in particular is so grotesque in 

 its configuration, that no painter would venture to 

 depict it ; its main peculiarity being that it has feet or 

 claws rather than fins. 2 The annexed drawing 3 may 



1 Trans. Zool. Soc. ii. p. 71. PL 

 15. 



— Lib. xvi. c. 18. 



3 The fish from which this draw- 

 ing of the Cheironectes was made, 

 was taken near Colombo, and from 

 the peculiarities which it presents it 

 is in all probability a new and unde- 

 scribed species. Dr. Gunther has 



remarked, that in it, whilst the first 

 and second dorsal spines are 

 situated as usual over the eye (and 

 form, one the angling bait of 

 the fish, the other the crest 

 above the nose), the third is at an 

 unusual distance from the second, 

 and is not separated, as in the 

 other species, from the soft fin by a 

 notch. 



