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 Sphyreenidz 
or Sea-pikes, represented by two genera, Sphyreena 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, Sphyrena 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, Sphyrena 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 Sphyreena in the West Indies. 
The family of the Trachinide 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 Gadide. 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 Trachinide are referred to as bad swimmers, whose locomotive powers are 
confined to moving along the bottom in small depths. This description applies 
