THE ANIMAL LIFE OF THE GROUP. 353 



The family of barracudas ^ has two local forms, one of which, the kawelea^ 

 is not uncommon, as it frequents the mullet ponds along the shore. They seldom 

 attain a length of more than twenty-four inches, and are therefore but feeble 

 representatives of the great barracuda, that excellent food fish along the Cali- 

 fornia coast, which is often five feet or more in length. Our local form is 

 voracious and destructive to mullet, and do much danuige to seines with their 

 strong teeth which are set in a large mouth — two characteristics that are 

 useful to the novice in separating them from the more valuable mullet with 

 which they frequently occur. 



Butterfly-Fish. 



No one who has visited the Aquarium will need to be reminded that 

 Hawaii can boast of a long list of beautiful creatures that might well be called 

 the buttei'flies of the coral reefs. 



Their compressed bodies, small size, continuous dorsal fins, small mouths, 

 and brilliant, varied and beautiful colors are characteristics sufficient to 

 distinguish them at once from their near relatives under a family name, 

 Cludodontidce, which has reference to their distinctly brush-like teeth. The 

 five genera found in Hawaii embrace at present about eighteen species that, 

 owing to graceful form, bright colors and great activity, make them exceed- 

 ingly popular as aquarium specimens. Their great quickness and agility 

 enable them to maintain themselves in the struggle for existence in the close 

 competition of the coral reef, in spite of their conspicuous habits and color- 

 ing. In the typical genus ^ a black band usually crosses through the eye ; 

 kikakapu is the native name applied to several well-marked species which 

 vary so widely in their colors as to defy brief description. 



Blennies. 



Representatives of the faniil.y known as Blennies " are certain to be noticed 

 by the most casual observer strolling along the beach. The little fish most 

 connnonly seen clinging to the coral rocks as the waves recede is one or another of 

 the nine or ten species of this family. They are active and alert, and since 

 there are in the world more than five hundred species, many of which never 

 attain a length of two inches, it is not strange that the naturalist seldom 

 ventures to name, off-hand, the various examples that so often form the sum 

 total of the catch secured by a wading party. However, it may be well to 

 know that Enneapterygius atriceps is the only name given the little fish with 

 the large eyes, three dorsal fins and the whip-like pectorals that is common in 

 tlu' coral rocks about Honolulu. 



Tlie Ilawaiians did not distinguish it as separate from its relatives. Of its 

 next of kin two or three species of the genus Alticus are also quite common 

 about the islands; they have two dorsal fins. The small dark olive Salaria 

 2thni is the most abundant species. It has the body crossed by numerous 

 alteinating pale and dark-olive bands, and has a curious lash above the eye. 



3 Sphyrmtidiv. « Trai-hinnrephahis myops. ^ Chatadon. " nietndida;. 



