272 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



is directed from above, forwards. The scales are loosely imbricated posteriorly, but firmly 

 attached to each other by their upper and lower margins. In the dried specimens, they are 

 of stony hardness ; but in the recent fish, may be cut with a knife. Under the lens, they 

 appear to be minutely spinous on their outer margins. This, however, only appears in the cabi- 

 net specimen, and may be owing to the desiccation of the mucus on the surface. The scales 

 become elongated into bifid spines, which are imbricated over the external rays of the caudal 

 and the first rays of the remaining fins. The lateral line commences at the upper angle of 

 the opercle, gradually descending until it reaches the ventrals, and thence straight ; it runs 

 nearest the dorsal outline. Head square, rounded above, elongated. Eyes large, slightly 

 oval, placed just behind the angle of the jaws; diameter of the orbits, 0.25. Opercles 

 smooth, narrow, elongated, with a rounded margin, and furnished with a broad cellular mem- 

 brane. Branchial rays three. Jaws elongated ; the upper somewhat rounded above, with a 

 longitudinal furrow, and enlarged and rounded at the tip, extending 0"3 beyond the lower 

 jaw. Nostrils double ; the posterior rounded, vertical ; the anterior subterminal, and placed 

 laterally on the margin of the enlarged part of the upper jaw. Both jaws armed with a series 

 of very acute conical distant teeth on the outer edge, and another series of minute contiguous 

 teeth within ; on the enlarged end of the upper jaw externally, is a row of rather larger teeth, 

 which, when the jaws are closed, shuts over the extremity of the lower jaw. 



The dorsal fin near the tail, pointed, longer than high, and when reclined back, extends 

 beyond the lower line of the base of the tail ; its first ray is covered with four bifid imbri- 

 cated spines ; the third ray longest, the others successively shorter. The pectorals placed 

 low down, slightly pointed ; the third and fourth longest, subequal. Ventrals equidistant 

 between the pectorals and anal, 1 ' 3 long, acute, and composed of seven rays, of which the 

 first is longest. Anal beneath the dorsal, with a somewhat wider base. Caudal rounded, 

 with an oblique base ; the fourth ray longest. 



Color. Soiled yellowish ; darker above. A broad longitudinal band of dusky brown ex- 

 tends from the opercles of the tail just beneath the lateral lines. 



Length, 13*0; of the head and jaws, 4'0. 

 Fin rays, D. 8 ; P. 14 ; V. 7 ; A. 10 ; C. 14. 



This fish, which frequently attains a larger size, was obtained at Buffalo, Lake Erie, where 

 it is called the Bony Pike, Alligator and Alligator Gar. It occurs in many of the small lakes 

 of the Western district, and has been taken at Ogdensburgh three feet long. It is frequently 

 known under the name of Bvffalo-fish, which suggested its specific name. From a commu- 

 nication which I received from Mr. Z. Thomson of Burlington, Vermont, I have reason to 

 believe that this species exists in Lake Champlain. He speaks of it as being ten inches long, 

 and as distinctly striped as in the Coluber sirtalis. I cannot suppose the above described 

 species to be cofounded with L. rostratus, Cuvier (Uuronensis, Richardson), and certainly not 

 with the following. 



