FAMILY PERCID.'E. 39 



GENUS SPHYR.'ENA. Cuvier. 



Body elorigatcd, ivilh two distant dorsals. Loivcr jaw longest ; hnth with long teeth. Vcn- 

 trals post-pectoral, or placed towards the middle of the hodij. 



Obs. The fishes included under tliis genus liave long been arranged under the family 

 Esocida', and indeed their general form and habits would lead one to associate them with the 

 Pikes. They are, however, true Acanthopterygians, or fishes with bony rays ; have two 

 dorsal fins, and the intermaxillaries extend over the entire edge of the upper jaw. They 

 have also numerous caecal appendages, and their ventral fins are abdominal. Cuvier, in his 

 last great work, places ihcm at the end of the Percida;, from which, however, they must be 

 separated, as he observes, together with Paralepis and Polynemus, by a considerable interval. 

 These three genera will, in all jirobability, form a distinct family. Most of the species of 

 the genus Sphyrsna, at certain seasons, are very poisonous ; producing, when taken as food, 

 vomitinir and convulsions, and sometimes terminating in death. 



THE NORTHERN BARRACUTA. 



SptlRJiNA BOREALIS. 

 n.ATE LX. FIG. 196. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Characteristics. Small. Greenish above ; lateral lino yellow. Opercle with a single point. 

 Length eight inches. 



Description. Body elongated, subcylindrical. Depth one-eighlh of the total lengdi. Scales 

 very small, adherent, orbicular, with minute concentric strite ; and under a strong lens, radiat- 

 ing striffi may be observed : they extend over the opercular bones. The course of the lateral 

 line is very slightly sinuous, but nearly straight, and is manifested by a scries of rather large 

 scales, under the posterior edges of which are short tubes. Head produced, ilattcncd, smooth, 

 channelled above, rather more than one-fourth of the total length. Opercle large, cmarginate, 

 opposite to the base of the pectorals, pointed above and rounded l^cncatli. Eyes large, oval, 

 0-4 in diameter, and about a diameter apart. Lower jaw longest, and furnished at the tip 

 with a fleshy process. Teeth acute, pellucid, conspicuous on both jaws. In the lower jaw 

 they are large, distant behind, and becoming smaller and more crowded towards the front, 

 where two very large teeth are placed, and received into a cavity in the upper jaw. Tiicre 

 arc also two large incurved teeth in the uj)per jaw on each side, and numerous miiuile teeth 

 along the edges of the intermaxillaries. Three long and slender teeth on the palatines ot each 

 side, and beyond them numerous minute teeth. On the tongue, also, are numerous recurved 

 teeth. 



The first dorsal fin commences at a point equidistant between the tip of the pectorals and 

 the base of the ventrals : it is obscurely triangular, its height etpial to il.s base, and comjiosed 



