TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE,
1869.
I.—NATURAL HISTORY.
Art. I.—On the New Zealand Sword-Fish. By F. J. Knox, L.R.C.S.E.
(With Illustrations.)
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, June 19, 1869.]
At a meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, held September 15, 1868, I communicated a brief notice of the cranium and other portions of a Sword-Fish (Xiphias, Linn.), presented by me to the Museum, which was read, with the supplementary note by Dr. Hector. (See "Trans. N. Z. Institute, Vol. i., page 44.) I now communicate the further details which were then promised.
The specimen had been stranded on the west coast of the North Island, near Waikanae, in the month of June, 1867. Like most other strangers, this fish attracted immediate attention, and was so cut up that I was only able to procure the preparations now in the Museum, which are insufficient to enable me to determine, with anything like precision, the particular species. From Dr. Günther's catalogue of the Acanthopterygian fishes in the collection of the British Museum, it appears that there are eight different specimens, divided into two genera:—
- Xiphias, ventral fins, none.
- Histiophorus, ventral fins, present.
Now, the portion I procured being only the cranium and anterior part of the dorsal fin, it is impossible to determine even the genus, with anything like scientific precision. In the meantime, I may remark that in Xiphias gladius, according to Dr. Günther, there are "no teeth, neither in the jaws nor on the palate," whilst in the Histiophorus, there are small teeth in the jaws and on the palatine bones; and it is important to remark that Cuvier (McMurtrie's
