This Fish attains a great size, being found in the Mediterranean and Atlantic from five to six feet in length. Its body is covered with minute scales, the sword forming three-tenths of its length. On the back it bears a single long dorsal fin; the tail is keeled, the lower jaw is sharp, the mouth toothless, the upper part of the Fish bluish-black, merging into silver beneath. It seems to have a natural desire to exercise towards and against all the arm with which nature has furnished it; it darts with the utmost fury upon the most formidable moving bodies; it attacks the Whale; and there are numerous and well authenticated instances of ships being perforated by the jaw of this powerful creature, while the toothed spear of the Saw-fish has been found fast in the body of a Whale which it has pierced. In 1725, some carpenters having occasion to examine the bottom of a ship, which had just returned from the Tropical seas, found the lance of a Sword-fish buried deep in the timbers of the ship. They declared that, to drive a pointed bolt of iron of the same size and form to the same depth, would require eight or nine blows of a hammer weighing thirty pounds. From the position of the weapon it was evident that the Fish had followed the ship while under full sail; it had penetrated through the metal sheathing, and three inches and a half beyond, into the solid frame. The Sword-fish has obstinate combats with the Saw-fish, and even the Shark, and it is supposed that when he attacks the bottom of a vessel he takes that sombre mass for the body of an enemy. THE ARCHER FISH. [Illustration: ARCHER FISH.] The idea of a Shooting-fish seems quite as odd as that of a Flying-fish, yet the Archer-fish often uses this method of bringing down its prey. For this reason he is sometimes known as the Toxotes—the word meaning a bowman or archer. Although the Archer-fish belongs to this fourth family of bony Fishes—those with spiny fins—it is not only unlike any other species of this family, but unlike any other Fish known; in that it is the only one that goes out gunning for its prey. It possesses the power of spurting water from its mouth with such force as to bring down Insects from aquatic plants within its reach. As it lives almost entirely upon these insects, it may take rather tedious gunning at times to secure enough to satisfy its hunger, and it is decidedly interesting to watch this small archer on one of his hunting expeditions.