66 ropers from the Department of Marine Biology. 



dried head No. in, a new fang is just ready to erupt on the right side. 

 Apparently two teeth belong at the apex of the lower jaw, but only one 

 seems to be present at any given time. This point will be taken up 

 again after the literature of the subject has been reviewed. 



The earliest writer whom I have found to give any accurate descrip- 

 tion of the jaws and teeth of Sphyrcena is Rondelet (1558).* Writing 

 of the European form, the spet, he says: 



"The lower jaw is longer than the upper, ends in a point, and receives the 

 upper jaw into itself. ... It has strong pointed teeth curved inwards like 

 those of the Mursena. On the upper jaw there are four, and on the palate are 

 two rows of teeth. At the center (apex) of the lower jaw there is one tooth 

 greater than all the others, which enters into a cavity in the center of the upper 

 jaw made on purpose to receive it." 



Even clearer and more explicit is the Roman physician, Salviani, 

 whose folio work on fishes appeared in the same year as that of the 

 Latin edition of his contemporary. He writes: 



"The upper jaw is obtuse and shorter, the lower acute and longer. As a 

 result, the point of the wedge-shaped beak is constituted only of the extreme 

 part of the lower jaw; and into the lower and longer maxilla, the shorter 

 upper jaw fits when the mouth is closed. Each jaw is fortified with teeth, the 

 upper with larger ones, the lower with smaller; and in the middle of the 

 anterior part of this lower jaw, indeed in the very hiatus of the mouth, there 

 stands out one tooth the longest and sharpest of all. This, when the mouth is 

 closed, is so received into a foramen in the anterior and membranous part of 

 the upper jaw, that this projects a little on the outside."f 



These descriptions, though made from the Mediterranean species, are 

 more accurate for our fish than is Sioane's, even though his was 

 written from the West Indian form found at Jamaica. Sloane says 

 (1707), of a barracuda 15 inches long and hence immature: 



"The under jaw had two Rowes of small Teeth, and one long one at the 

 End in the Middle, the upper had one Row of small teeth on the outside and 

 another within of long ones." 



Catesby's description (1754) is also very imperfect. For his fish see 

 figure 16, plate v. He simply says of Bahama specimens: 



"The upper jaw is armed with four large teeth, placed at [opposite to] the 

 fore part of the under jaw; next the head are placed ten smaller teeth, being 

 five on each side; and in the fore part of [the lower jaw] . . . grows one single 

 large tooth." 



Patrick Browne (1756) found two large canines at the apex of the 

 lower jaw, which he notes was the longer. The mouth is described as 

 very large, the jaws especially so. These are filled with many oblong 

 lanceolate teeth, '"'whereof the two foremost [on the lower jaw] pierce 



*The first edition of Rondelet' 3 work was published in Latin in 1554. 

 tThis is faintly shown in Salviani 's excellent figure. 



