Sphyrcena barracuda; its Morphology, Habits, and History. 69 



spirited figure (text-figure 1), shows but one fang. Wood-Jones (1912), 

 in his photograph (figure 2, plate i) of a giant specimen from Cocos- 

 Keeling Islands, shows but one tooth. My five specimens, as their 

 photographs show, had but one fang each. On the other hand Browne 

 (1756) speaks of two teeth at the symphysis of the lower jaw as does 

 Guichenot in his "Poissons de Cuba" (1850). In describing the spet 

 of Mediterranean waters, Cuvier and Valenciennes (1829) distinctly 

 say that at the point of the lower jaw are two large, strong, curved 

 teeth. Of the great barracuda they say that the dentition is like that 

 of the spet. Their full-length figure of S. barracuda shows but a single 

 tooth at the apex of the lower jaw, but their line drawing of the head 

 found on the same plate shows two straight fine-pointed teeth. The 

 single tooth in the other figure is, however, correctly hooked backward. 

 Agassiz (1843) likewise says that the lower jaw has two great teeth at 

 its apex, but his figure shows only one. (See figure 22, plate vi.) 

 The last to be quoted is Day (1865), who says that there are two 

 large canines in the anterior part of the lower jaw of S. jello of India. 



It is interesting just here to note that Cuvier and Valenciennes 

 quote Plee as saying that he has seen great numbers of young barra- 

 cudas not more than 6 inches long and that "all lack the tooth of the 

 lower jaw." The following data, however, may be given for specimens 

 hardly more than one-third as long as Plee's. The four little barra- 

 cudas taken at Tortugas in 1917, and described on page 59 for their 

 color markings, have the great tooth of the lower jaw present and 

 exposed for study by reason of the shrinking of the tissues at the tip 

 of the upper jaw. The largest and bulkiest fish (2.6 inches long to 

 the base of the caudal) has but one lower anterior tooth, the right. 

 All three of the others (measuring 2.6, 2.35, and 2.25 inches) have but 

 one each and that the left tooth. 



After thinking on the matter for some time, it became clear to me 

 that since the lower jaw is bilateral and since there is one fang at 

 the external end of one ramus of the mandible, there is due to be one at 

 the other. When the head of the fresh specimen from Miami was 

 cleaned off, there (in the proper position), was the base of the broken-off 

 left fang. A little dissection of the largest dried head revealed a pre- 

 cisely similar state of affairs. Removal of a lot of tissue at the apex of 

 the lower jaw of dried specimen No. in showed a new tooth nearly 

 ready to break through ; and in the smallest dried head the stump of 

 a broken-off tooth was found. 



From a consideration of the foregoing facts it is clear that the great 

 barracuda normally has two great teeth at the apex of the lower jaw, 

 but for some unknown reason only one is commonly found, the one or 

 the other being broken off. It would be of no small interest if the 

 reason for this could be ascertained. 



