Sphyrcena barracuda; its Morphology, Habits, and History. 73 



The first of the old writers to give any account of the internal organs 

 of a Sphyrcena is Rondelet (1558). His brief statement concerning 

 the spet of the Mediterranean is as follows: ''It has a long stomach 

 with several additions [coeca], the bowels are long, the liver whitish." 



Sloane (1707) briefly says that its stomach is ''sack-fashioned/' and 

 that the coecal appendages are very many. 



Parra (1787) makes no mention of the viscera other than the air- 

 bladder. This in his specimen was 12 inches long by 5 inches thick. 

 His figure of the air-bladder, while crude, is in the main correct, 



Cuvier and Valenciennes (1829) give a very definite description of 

 the internal organs of a fish of the species described by Rondelet : 



"The viscera are simple, elongated. The liver has only one lobe, placed 

 on the right side of the abdomen. 



"The oesophagus is short and soon is transformed into the stomach, which 

 is an elongated but narrow sac of such a kind that the capacity of the viscera 

 is not very great. The pylorus opens close to the cardiac end near to the 

 diaphragm; it is provided with a very great number of cceca, disposed in a 

 single row on the length of the duodenum. The intestine is narrow and goes 

 straight to the anus without making a bend." 



They note that the liver is black, rather thick, rounded at its 

 extremities, and placed across the middle of the stomach. The swim 

 bladder is large with the upper walls thicker than those next the 

 viscera. It is pointed behind, but forked in front. Each horn is 

 pointed and terminates near the skull, but no communication with the 

 auditory capsules could be found. 



Of our form, Sphyrcena barracuda, Cuvier and Valenciennes merely 

 say that its viscera are very similar to those of the European form, 

 the chief difference being that its stomach is larger. 



Where so many other structures were found to be so markedly 

 individual it was something of a disappointment to find the reproduc- 

 tive organs entirely normal in structure and position. They were, how- 

 ever, very large, befitting a fish of this size. No. 10 (.3 feet 10 inches 

 over all) was a male with a spermary bifurcated in front but coalesced 

 behind into a common tube ending in the genital pore. The right lobe 

 was 8, the left 9.5 inches in length anterior to the point of bifurcation. 



The gross structure of the ovary is precisely that of the spermary. 

 My largest specimen (No. 12) was a female 4 feet 7 inches long over 

 all. The right lobe of her ovary was 14.5 inches long, at the left sac 

 15.5 — the eggs being immature. This huge ovary was presented to 

 the United States National Museum, to the authorities of which I am 

 indebted for the beautiful photograph which forms figure 14 of plate iv. 



In the course of this research the only reference found to the struc- 

 ture of the reproductive organs is in Cuvier and Valenciennes (1829), 

 and thej'' merely note that the spermaries and ovaries are two straight 

 sacs found in the hinder part of the abdomen. 



