Tbe Barracuda of Florida 89 



the muskallunge would possibly mistake the bar- 

 racuda for this gamy fish of the lakes, as it is 

 long, slender, and pikelike; a silvery arrow, a 

 privateerlike fish, trim, alert, and possessed of re- 

 markable cunning. Its head is long and pointed. 

 The mouth wide, the lower jaw slightly protrud- 

 ing, giving it a bulldog appearance, which in old 

 fishes becomes the support or base of a single 

 large tooth, a companion to others of large size 

 and bladelike shape which make up its armament. 

 The first dorsal fin stands up alone like a leg-of- 

 mutton sail, boomed out by five spines. The 

 second is equally isolated, corresponding to the 

 anal. The tail is forked and a powerful organ 

 for propulsion, and very expressive in the sense 

 of the tail of a cat, vibrating in a singular man- 

 ner when the fish is about to pounce upon its 

 prey. 



There is a single genus, Sphyrtena, and twenty 

 species, 6 1 . barracuda (Walbaum) of the Gulf of 

 Mexico being the subject of this chapter. It 

 attains the length of between six and seven feet, 

 and the weight of sixty or seventy pounds, this 

 being my personal observation; and I have been 

 informed by " reef combers " that larger speci- 

 mens have been taken. The range of the fish 



