172 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



"King-fish," Thyrsites Solandri. It considerably exceeds the Barracouta in size and 

 may weigh as much as from twelve to over twenty pounds. This King-fish is caught 

 in the same manner as the last-named species, and, in seasons when it is plentiful, 

 " three men in a boat " have been known to capture forty dozen, or over two tons 

 weight, in a single night. Not many years ago this King-fish appeared in the bays 

 and inlets adjacent to the Derwent estuary in such remarkable numbers that tons were 

 stranded on the beaches. Such large supplies were at the same time taken by the 

 fishermen that, in the absence of a sufficient market demand or ready means for their 

 conservation, vast quantities of them were used for manuring the hop gardens and fruit 

 orchards for which Tasmania is so justly famous. As though by way of retribution 

 for the previous lavish waste of this magnificent food species, this King-fish has 

 since been an almost entire stranger to the Tasmanian coast. 



Another group of elongate predaceous fishes, having, with regard to both aspect 

 and habits, much in common with the Barracoutas, Thyrsites, is that of the Sphyraenidae 

 or Sea-pikes, represented by two genera, Sphyrsena and Lanioperca, and many species 

 in both the temperate and tropical Australian waters. In the higher latitudes, 

 beyond the range of distribution of Thyrsites, one species, Sphyrcena langsar, is often 

 locally distinguished by the corresponding title of the Barracouta. Large examples of 

 this species have been known to attain to a length of seven or eight feet and to 

 weigh as much as forty pounds. One of the most widely distributed of the 

 Australian Sea-Pikes, Sphyrcena obtusata, is photographically portrayed in Fig. C of 

 Plate XXIX. The specimen figured was obtained at Fremantle, Western Australia. 

 The " Barracuda " is the common name given to tropical Atlantic representatives of 

 the genus Sphyrsena in the West Indies. 



The family of the Trachinidse is deserving of brief notice, since it includes the 

 several greatly esteemed species of so-called Australian Whitings, referable to the 

 genera Sillago, Isosillago and Neosillago, but having necessarily no relationship to the 

 European Whitings, which are true Gadidae. Although there are no European 

 representatives of these generic groups, the Weever fishes of the British seas, Trachinus 

 draco and T. vipera, as also the Star-gazer, Uranoscopus scaber, of the Mediterranean, are 

 usually assigned by ichthyologists to the same family. The association of these respective 

 generic groups by no means recommends itself as a natural system of classification. 

 In Dr. Gunther's " Introduction to the Study of Fishes " all the members of the 

 family Trachinidse are referred to as bad swimmers, whose locomotive powers are 

 confined to moving along the bottom in small depths. This description applies 



