76 Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 



One other instance of like kind may be given. During the first two 

 weeks of June 1913, a big barracuda laid off our eastern wharf, herding 

 the gray snappers and making it unsafe to bathe. Almost daily efforts 

 were made to hook him, and a pair of grains was kept on that dock 

 for his special benefit, but he avoided grains and eschewed hooks and 

 herded snappers, until possibly he became careless. At any rate Capt. 

 Wrn. Lee Wilson, finding him engrossed with the snappers, broke his 

 back with the grains late one afternoon and brought him in alive and 

 kicking. This fish was a male 4 feet 1 inch long and weighed 21 

 pounds, the largest specimen but one ever taken by us. It is interest- 

 ing to note that a barracuda thus engaged in standing guard over a 

 herd of fish in the manner just described, will nearly always be found 

 to have its broad forked tail slowly waving from side to side, vibrating 

 very like the tail of a cat watching a rat hole. This has also been 

 noticed by Holder (1908). 



Of the breeding habits, absolutely nothing is known. Judging from 

 the habits of the fish it seems probable that the eggs are pelagic. 

 Thompson (1905) says that he took specimens 1.5 inches long inside 

 the little sheltered lagoon of Bush Key. Still earlier, Holder (1903) 

 says that at Tortugas spawning occurs in the spring, but adds that 

 very young fishes are rarely seen, although specimens 8 inches and 

 upwards are not uncommon. At Beaufort, North Carolina, the writer 

 has frequently taken in July the 1.5 to 5-inch young of the northern 

 barracuda (S. borealis}. 



No young barracudas were caught at Tortugas during the summers 

 spent there by the writer, but 4 little ones were taken in the summer 

 of 1916. Concerning these, Professor Longley (with whom I have had 

 the pleasure of studying the fishes of Tortugas) kindly writes that on 

 July 14 one about an inch long was dipped up somewhere out in the 

 open. This "was marked with a distinct lateral band of brown pig- 

 ment running the length of the body through the eye." The three 

 others were taken on the west side of Bush Key; one about an inch 

 long from over grassy bottom, the others 1 to 2 inches long from 

 over sandy bottom. Dr. Longley thinks that all were probably swim- 

 ming near the surface. These were unfortunately not preserved, since 

 it was not known then that I was at work on this fish. 



As noted previously, four young of the great barracuda were taken 

 at Tortugas during the summer of 1917. They vary from 2.25 to 2.6 

 inches in length to the base of the caudal. The total length can not 

 be given, since these specimens came to me dried and in handling 

 their brittle caudal fins have lost their points. These are believed 

 to be the smallest specimens ever studied. 



Since writing the above, some corroborative data has come to hand 

 and its inclusion here will be of value. Weber in his " Fische der Siboga- 

 Expedition" (191 3), in commenting on the widespread distribution of 



