SPHYRMA BARRACUDA; ITS MORPHOLOGY, 

 HABITS, AND HISTORY. 



BY E. W. GUDGER. 



The family Sphyrsenidse, the barracudas, comprises one genus only, 

 Sphyrcena. The 20 or more species of this genus are found in the warm 

 waters of the tropical and sub-tropical zones all round the world. Th jy 

 are carnivorous fishes, generally of large size, fierce and voracious in 

 habits, the salt-water congeners of the fresh-water pikes. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



At Tortugas, the great barracuda, Sphyrcena barracuda (Walbaum) , 

 also known in various parts of the West Indies as picuda or becuna, 

 is very abundant in the lagoon. Twelve large specimens have been 

 taken and examined, and scores of others could have been caught 

 if they had been sought. This large fish has a long and powerful 

 body, compressed and rounded, in cross-section having a somewhat 

 elliptical outline. The head is very large, about one-fourth the 

 total length of the fish, is long, narrow, pointed, and flat on top- 

 in short, wedge-shaped. The mouth has an enormous gape, the jaws 

 extending back to a point directly under the eye, and measuring about 

 one-half the length of the head. The lower jaw projects beyond the 

 upper, and both jaws are provided with huge canine teeth. The lower 

 jaw, however, ends bluntly, as is shown in every figure of the fish 

 given in this paper. In marked contradistinction are Fowler's figures 

 (1903) of S. picudilla and S. tome, in both of which the lower jaw is 

 drawn out into a fine thin point. 



All of these points will be made clear by reference to figure 1, 

 plate i, and figures 3 and 4, plate u, photographs of specimens taken 

 at Tortugas and Miami, Florida.* Attention is also called to the 

 spinous dorsal fin, which, with its five rays connected by a thin 

 transparent membrane, is depressible in a groove, thereby becoming 

 invisible. This fin is placed almost immediately over the abdomi- 

 nally located pelvic fins; while the soft dorsal, placed far back, occupies 

 a similar position with reference to the anal fin. Not only are these 

 two fins similar in position and appearance but also in structure, each 

 being provided with a spine in front. The wide separation of the 

 two dorsals and their location over the ventrally placed pectoral and 

 anal fins gives the fish a symmetrical appearance despite its bulky 

 figure. The body ends in a thick, stout caudal peduncle which bears 



*The figure on the opposite page (text-figure 1), which is reproduced from Frank T. Bullen's 

 "Denizens of the Deep," represents the barracuda in thoroughly characteristic attitudes. The 

 fishes are well drawn. 



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