ANNOTATED LIST OF THE SPECIES 339 
Piraracu (Woodroffe) 
Piracuru (Koebel) 
Pirarocou and Pira-rocou (Marcoy) 
Lou-lou (Whitney) 
Paiche (Beals, Woodroffe, and others, correctly) 
Payshi (Orton, Herndon, probably the original Indian name) 
Anatto (Orton and others) 
Warapaima (Beebe gives this as the original Guiana form) 
Authors vary greatly in their reports as to the size and weight attained by the 
species : 
Author Length attained Weight attained 
Martin 5-6 feet 
Koebel 6 feet 200 pounds 
Miller 6 feet 200 pounds 
Domville-Fife 6 feet 300 pounds 
Woodroffe 7 feet 300 pounds 
Gibbon 6-8 feet 
Dyott 6-8 feet 
Spruce 6-8 feet 60-100 pounds 
Lange 9-10 feet 250 pounds 
Koebel, zbidem 8 feet 150 pounds 
Franck 10 feet 
Orton 10 feet 300 pounds 
Beebe 100 pounds 
McGovern 300 pounds 
Eigenmann 15 feet 400 pounds 
Examination of the above table would show conclusively that the scientific 
traveler has information no more definite than that of the most casual rambling re- 
porter. It is true that scales suitable for weighing so large a fish are found but 
rarely. In my own experience none was weighed, and only one measured care- 
fully. This one specimen taken at Yarinacocha measured seven feet one inch. By 
the estimates of the people present it was regarded as having attained more than 
half the maximum length of twelve feet, and about half the maximum weight. 
Weight is always estimated in Loreto in terms of strips, rather than pounds or kilos. 
The maximum number of strips, they say, is twelve, while this specimen cut six 
strips. My principal witness regarding the specimen was Senor Medina, planter 
and merchant, who was accustomed to dealing in the dried product for shipment to 
Iquitos downriver. After discussion of the matter with numerous people, I am 
forced to regard the Eigenmann estimates as too high, and would place the probable 
maximum size of the paiche, at least in the upper Amazon, at about 12 feet, and the 
maximum weight nearer 3800 pounds. 
A number of authors agree in saying that the paiche is the largest of the world’s 
freshwater fishes, (Fleming, glossary; even Guenther, p. 175). Of course they are 
forgetting momentarily the sturgeon. 
Other false conceptions have reached the printed page: 
Franck, that great traveler and observer, doubtless hearing the piraruci com- 
pared with the cod as I did many times, misunderstood the allusion, and calls it 
the ‘“‘freshwater cod ... which dies if it gets into salt water.’ Some native of the 
Amazon with tongue in cheek must have told him ‘‘expert fishermen ... make the 
