CHAPTER XXII 

 THE BARRACOUTA 



IN dealing with this fish, the last upon my list, I have 

 one great advantage : knowing him very well, in- 

 deed personally, I am not hampered with what I 

 may call museum details. Strangely enough, the Barra- 

 couta, in spite of the large extent of his range, his great 

 numbers, usefulness as a food-fish, and other strongly 

 marked qualities, has been much neglected by ichthyo- 

 logists, Messrs. Goode and Bean's monumental work, 

 for instance, having no mention of him. Lydekker 

 mentions the name, spelling it ' Barracouda,' as being 

 indifferently applied to the genera Thyrsites and 

 Sphyroena. But that does not shed a dazzling light 

 upon the habits of a most interesting deep-sea fish, and 

 one that is found in nearly all tropical and temperate 

 waters around the world. I should like though to 

 say at the outset that, in my experience, the Barra- 

 couta of the West Indies differs in very important 

 respects from the fish known by that name around 

 the South African coast and in Australasia ; yet the 

 habits and contour of the two are so exactly similar 

 that I am convinced they are very closely related, and 

 the difference probably due to climate and habitat. 



My first acquaintance with the Barracouta was 

 made in the small reef-protected harbour of Falmouth, 

 Jamaica. A native fisherman brought one on board 

 for sale, and the steward, after some little haggling, 



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