40 



of the abdomen, a row of carinated scales. Dorsal and anal fins entire. Con- 

 tains only one British species, B. vulgaris, the subject of our present sketch: 

 which varies, from eighteen inches to two feet, in length ; has the lower jaw con- 

 siderably longer than the upper ; dorsal Jin, of 18 rays, situated very far behind ; 

 exactly opposed to, in situation, and resembling in figure, the anal, of 21 rays : 

 pectoral of 13 rays, small, and attached a little behind the gill-opening : ventral, 

 of 7 rays, still smaller, and situated far back. Caudal fin, of 13 rays, and forked. 

 Colour : Head, back, and dorsal portion of sides, fine bluish-green. Gill-covers, 

 and other parts of the body, of a bright silvery hue. 



The flesh is edible ; and said to resemble, in flavour, that of the Mackarel ; 

 but, from the circumstance of the bones acquiring a green colour, when boiled, a 

 popular prejudice almost universally exists against its dietetic employment. On 

 this account, also, it is sometimes distinguished by the provincial designation of 

 Green-bone : at others, as preceding the Mackarel in its annual arrival on the 

 coast in April, by that of the Mackarel-guide. 



The ventral fins of the Gar-pike being situated posteriorly to the pectoral, this 

 fish has, consistently with the principles of ichthyological arrangement adopted by 

 Linneus, been placed in his Order Abdominales, of true or osseous fishes. Cu- 

 vier, in his distribution of this Class, constitutes three Orders of Malacoptery- 

 gious, or Soft-finned Fishes : of these, the first, or Abdominales, is distinguished 

 by the attachment of the ventral posteriorly to the pectoral fins : the Second, 

 Sub-brachiales,~— by the insertion of the former below the latter ; and the last, 

 Apodes, by the entire absence of ventral fins. Consequently, the Gar-pike be- 

 longs to the Order, Malacopterygiens Abdominales, of Cuvier's System ; and, 

 as nearly allied to the common Pike, the genus Belone, to which it belongs, is 

 included, by British Ichthyologists, in the Esocidce, or Pike-family. This genus, as I 

 have before observed, offers only one British species,* — la Belone, of the French, 

 — and der hornfisch, of German Naturalists. Figures of the Gar-pike are given 

 by Pennant, British Zoology, vol. hi., pi. lxxiv. ; by Donovan, Natural History 

 of British Fishes, vol. hi., pi. liv. ; and by Yarrell, History of British Fishes, 

 vol. i., p. 391. 



June 30th, 1836. S. P. 



* The species, captured by Mr. Couch, at Polperro, and regarded by him, — See Lin- 

 nean Transactions, vol. xiv., p. 85, — as the Esox Brasiliensis, or Little Gar, is probably 

 only the young of some other fish : and the Saury, referred, by some Naturalists, to the 

 Belone genus, under the title of B. Saurus, has been taken by Lace'pede, to constitute a new 

 genus ; and named Scomberesox saurus, by Fleming ; See History of British Animals, v. i„ p. 

 184. It is principally distinguished from Belone, by the division of the posterior portions 

 of the dorsal and anal fins into several finlets resembling those of the Mackerel: — hence 

 the propriety of the generic designation, Scomberesox, or Mackarel-pike ; and by the bi-cari- 

 nated abdomen. An admirable figure of the Saury Pike is given, p. 394 of Yarrell's 1st vol. 



