XIPHIAS. SWORDFISH. 



Generic Character* 



Caput maxilla superiore ter- 

 minatum rostro ensif ormi . 



Os edentulum. 

 Membr. branch, radiis octo. 

 Corpus teretiusculum, ale- 

 pidotum. 



Head with the upper jaw 

 terminating in a sword- 

 shaped snout. 



Mouth without teeth. 



Gill-Membrane eight-rayed . 



Body roundish, without 

 scales. 



COMMON SWORDFISH. 



Xiphias Gladius. X* pinna dorsali postice attenuata. 



Swordfish with the dorsal fin attenuated at the hind part. . 



Xiphias Gladius. Lin. Syst. Nat. p. 432. 



Xiphias. Gcsner. Will. Jonst. § c. 



Gladius. Aldrov. I. 3. c. 21, p. 332. 



Sicilian S word-Fish. Venn. Brit, ZooL 4. p. 141.pl 26. 



TT^HE Swordfish, which is a native of the Me- 

 diterranean, and is mostly found in the Sicilian sea, 

 grows to a very large size, sometimes measuring 

 twenty feet in lengthy and is of an active and pre- 

 dacious disposition, feeding on the smaller kind of 

 fishes, which it kills by piercing with its sword- 

 shaped snout. The body is long, round, and 

 gradually tapers towards the tail : the head flattish^ 

 the mouth wide, both jaws ending in a point, but 

 the upper stretched to a great distance beyond the 



