SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES 



183 



Family SPHYRiENIDiE. The Barracudas. 



The barracudas are elongated pike-like fishes, more or less circular in cross 

 section, with very long, pointed head and large mouth armed with formidable 

 teeth. Lower jaw the longer; upper jaw not protractile, its margin formed by 

 the premaxillaries; maxillaries broad; teeth of unequal size on jaws and palatines, 

 a single large canine at tip of lower jaw; gill-openings wide, gill-membranes not 

 connected and free from isthmus, gill-arches 4, gill-rakers short or rudimentary, 

 pseudobranchiae large, branchiostegals 7; no spines on opercular bones; air- 

 bladder large, divided anteriorly; pyloric coeca numerous; lateral line well 

 developed, straight; scales small, cycloid, the head scaly on top and sides; 2 dor- 

 sal fins widely separated, first dorsal with 5 strong spines; second dorsal and anal 

 similar, opposite, and rather short; caudal widely forked; pectorals short, 

 attached low on side; ventrals abdominal, under first dorsal. The barracudas 

 inhabit the warm seas; some of them attain a large size (6 feet or more) ; in some 

 countries they are food fishes of some importance. They are powerful, active 

 fishes, carnivorous, and voracious. A score or more of species are known, all 

 belonging in one genus. 



Genus SPB.YRMSA Bloch & Schneider. Barracudas. 

 Only one small species is known from North Carolina, but two others may 

 occur as stragglers; these. are the great barracuda, Sphyrcena barracuda, which 

 ranges from Brazil to Pensacola, Charleston, and Bermuda, and has occasionally 

 wandered to Massachusetts, and the guaguanche, Sphyrcena guachancho, which 

 inhabits the West Indies, but has been noted in southern Massachusetts in at 

 least two instances. (Sphyrcena, hammer-fish.) 



157. SPHYR^NA BOREALIS DeKay. 

 Barracuda. 



Sphyraena borealis DeKay, New York Fauna, Fishes, 37, pi. 60, fig. 196, 1842; New York. Yarrow, 1877, 212- 

 Cape Lookout. Jordan, 1886, 27; Beaufort. Jordan & Evermann, 1896, 825; Cape Cod to Cape Fear. 

 Linton, 1905, 361; Beaufort. 



Sphyrcena spot, Jordan & Gilbert, 1879, 381; Beaufort harbor. 



Fig. 73. 



Barracuda 



Sphyriena borealis. 



Diagnosis.— Body slender, subterete, depth about .12 total length; head large, .33 in 

 total length; maxillary rather small, not extending as far as orbit; lower jaw with a fleshy tip; 

 premaxillary teeth small, about 40 in number, 2 pairs in front large and canine; the anterior 

 teeth smallest and directed downward, the posterior directed downward and backward; about 

 10 teeth in lower jaw; anterior palatine teeth larger than premaxillary, wide-set; posterior 



