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Needlefishes
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VORACIOUS, carnivorous, saltwater fishes, bearing a superficial resemblance to the Gar pikes; genera 4 (only 2 in American waters) and species about 50, the majority American. Their habits are ordinarily much like those of the pikes, but when startled they swim along the surface of the water with extraordinary rapidity, skimming the surface, sometimes leaping from the water with a sculling motion of the tail, sometimes remaining out of the water for long distances, but striking it at short intervals with the caudal fin. When thus leaping the large species of the tropics are said to be a source of danger to incautious fishermen, sometimes piercing with their long sharp snout the naked bodies of the savages.
Owing to the green colour of their bones, they are not much used as food, though their flesh is excellent.
This family contains 2 genera, Tylosurus and Athlennes, the former with several species, the latter with but 1. The only species deserving mention are the common neeedlefish (T. notatus), the billfish (T. marinus), and the houndfish or agujon (T. raphidoma). The agujon, of which we present a figure, is an abundant and important food-fish about Porto Rico. It reaches a length of 3 to 5 feet and is a vigorous, active fish, sometimes dangerous in its leaps from the water, and much dreaded by the fishermen. The young sometimes stray northward to New Jersey.