Sphymna barracuda; its Morphology, Habits, and History. 99 



from Wood-Jones (1912). In this connection see his figure of such a 

 giant fish reproduced herein as figure 2, plate i. He writes: 



"The barracouta has, however, left its mark upon at least one man, and I 

 have seen a Cocos [Keeling Archipelago} native the whole of whose calf 

 muscles had been torn away by the cruel teeth of this large [marine fish] 

 relative of the pike. The barracouta is an ugly and dangerous fish, for it is 

 of all sea creatures the most difficult to see, and it has a habit of dashing 

 upon whatever stirs in the water." 



In his very interesting book, describing the cruise of the Curagoa 

 among the South Sea Islands in 1865, Brenchley figures and describes 

 the tie-beam of a house at Uji, Solomon Islands. On one side of this 

 beam is carved and painted a scene showing an overturned canoe with 

 the men fighting with sharks and other fishes which are devouring some 

 of them. Concerning this scene Brenchley says: " Among the fish 

 regaling themselves on the remains of the bodies which they have par- 

 tially devoured are to be found more than one species. The long cen- 

 tral fish is the Sphynena, popularly known as the Barracuda." This 

 tie-beam was brought away by the Curagoa and figures of its two sides 

 form the frontispiece of Brenchley's book. The figure of the barracuda, 

 with a piece of human flesh in its jaws, is admirably drawn and per- 

 fectly recognizable. 



Further west in the Indian Ocean the barracuda abounds in the 

 waters around the island of Mauritius, where it bears the local name 

 tazarre. Nicholas Pike, while United States consul at Port Louis 

 nearly 50 years ago, made many valuable natural history observations. 

 From his delightful book ''Sub-tropical rambles" (1873) we learn 

 that, whenever he went collecting in the tide-pools and over the 

 shallow reefs, he always carried a fish spear to protect himself against 

 attacks from barracudas and eels. He tells us that once he was 

 attacked by a tazarre of considerable size, which "came right at me 

 like a bulldog." He harpooned it in the side, but it got away and then 

 came at him the second time. This time he struck it in the head, 

 but held it off with difficulty, though he was a large powerful man. 



HABITAT. 



The barracudas comprise the sole genus of the family Sphyrsenidae. 

 There are some 20 species of these carnivorous salt-water "pikes" 

 found in the w r arm seas (tropical and sub-tropical) all over the world. 

 Jordan and Evermann (1896) list 7 species from North American 

 waters: 2 from the Pacific Coast; 4 from the Atlantic; and 1, a Euro- 

 pean form, from the Bermudas only (on the authority of Dr. Goode). 

 Of the Atlantic forms 3 seem to be wholly tropical, ranging from Pen- 

 sacola and Charleston to Bahia; 2 of these are occasionally taken as far 

 north as Wood's Hole, probably as stragglers in the Gulf Stream ; the 

 other (the northern barracuda), seems to range from Cape Cod south to 



