Sphyrcena barracuda; its Morphology. Habits, and History. 59 



to me by Dr. A. G. Mayer. In transit the bottle containing them was 

 broken and they reached me in a dried condition, but with their color 

 markings quite clear and well defined. No. 1, measuring 2.6 inches 

 from tip of snout to base of caudal, has, between that point and the 

 hinder edge of the opercle, about 9 dark blotches which extend across 

 the dorsum and down to the belly on each side. Another fish of the 

 same length, but hardly so bulky, has about 7 of these saddle-shaped 

 bands. A third, 2.35 inches to the base of the caudal, has about 6. 

 The last and smallest (2.25 inches) has 7 bands, possibly the most 

 definitely marked off of all. In addition to these bands noted, there 

 is another, not quite so clear, extending from the fore part of one 

 opercle across the back to the other gill-cover. Again, on the dorsum, 

 across the base of the skull, all four specimens show a dark blotch. 



These bands are especially large and are somewhat irregular in shape 

 in the region of the lateral line on each side. On the median line of 

 the dorsum, especially in the region of the second dorsal fin, these 

 bands run together, giving these parts a very dark, even black appear- 

 ance. There can be no doubt that, as the fish grows older, the dorsal 

 connection disappears and the lateral parts of the bands are left as the 

 dark bars or splotches described above and shown in figure 1, plate i. 



These colors referred to above were noted on my fish after death. 

 In life the color of the fish readily accommodates itself to its surround- 

 ings. A large barracuda basking near the surface of the water in the 

 neighborhood of a coral head, a buoy or a channel stake, appears 

 much as a ghost fish, a shadowy wraith. Another lying near the bot- 

 tom over coral sand will so accommodate itself to its environment 

 as to be almost imnoticeable so long as it remains quiet. Wood- 

 Jones (1912) says that it is the hardest of all sea fish to see. 



JAWS AND TEETH. 1 



The mouth parts of the barracuda deserve attention both for them- 

 selves and because they do not seem to have been adequately described. 

 The mouth is very large, being in length nearly half of the head and 

 having a large gape. Together with this, the projecting lower jaw, the 

 enormous canine teeth, the large glassy staring eyes, give the fish an 

 aspect of ferocity which is not belied by its habits, as will be shown 

 later. It has been fittingly compared to a bull-dog, and Saville-Kent 

 (1893) notes that at Moreton Bay, Australia, it is called dingo because 

 of "its formidable array of teeth." 



The lower jaw is longer than the upper, projecting notably as a 

 conical fleshy mass of tissue which, if on the upper jaw, would form a 

 decided snout. Dissection of this jaw in the fresh specimen revealed 



lf rhe material on which I have based my observations for this section consists of four dried 

 heads from Tortugas (dried with the mouths distended) and one fresh head sent to me packed 

 ill salt from Miami, Florida. For this last specimen and for previous similar favors I am indebted 

 to Mr. John Mills, of Miami. 



