56 



Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 



the large, rather deeply forked caudal fin, of which the upper lobe 

 is generally slightly the larger. The appearance of this fish gives one 

 the idea of speed and power in about equal proportions. It is of the 

 type of the battle cruiser. 



The body of the fish is well panoplied with fairly large cycloid scales. 

 The eyes are large and staring, and are placed about the center of the 

 upper lateral region. The anterior nostril is a small pore at the front 

 end of the supraorbital ridge; the posterior is a slit (0.25 inch long in a 

 3 feet 10 inch specimen) standing nearly vertical (slightly forward and 

 downward) in front of the eye. Our American authorities (Jordan 

 and Evermann, and Evermann and Marsh) state that the lateral line 

 is straight, but their figure shows that it rises slightly just above the 

 pectoral fin. In my specimens, for the most part, this rise was far 



TEXT-FIGURE 2. Sphyrana barracuda (Walbaum), after Jordan and Evermann. 



more marked than in their figure, in one fish beginning 2 inches back of 

 the tip of the pectoral. In my largest specimen, however, the rise was 

 only moderately pronounced. 



As was noted above, 12 large specimens have been taken and exam- 

 ined, but the fish being so characteristic in structure and markings that 

 it is recognized at a mere glance, fin ray count was made for only one 

 specimen. This fish, an adult, 3 feet 10 inches in length, had dorsal 

 rays v-i, 9; and, i, 8. Jordan and Evermann (1896) give D. v-i, 9; A. 

 i, 9; but their figure has only 8 anal rays. Evermann and Marsh, in 

 their " Fishes of Porto Rico" (1900), make the dorsal rays v-i, 10; and 

 the anal ones i, 8; yet they copy Jordan and Evermann's figure 

 referred to, which has but 9 soft rays in the dorsal. Possibly there is 

 some variation in the number of fin rays. The figure referred to is 

 reproduced herein as text-figure 2. 



The table on page 58 gives the comparative measurements of these 

 12 specimens in inches and the weight in pounds. 



COLOR AND MARKINGS. 



There is considerable variation in the body-color and markings of 

 this big barracuda. In life, specimen No. 11 was on the upper surface 

 a rich dark green, the sides silvery, the belly chalky-white. In the 

 mid-lateral region the green sent down bars into the silvery region, 



