NOTICE OF THE REPORTED CAPTURE OF THE COMMON 

 GAR-PIKE (Belone vulgaris) IN THE RIVER TAME. 



In the month of April last, I received from Mr. Richard Bird, Surgeon, of 

 Tamworth, a fine specimen of the common Gar-pike, said, by the man from whom 

 he obtained it, to have been just caught in the River Tame, about two miles 

 below Tamworth. That a sea-fish not mentioned, by any Ichthyologist with 

 whose writings I am acquainted, as ever frequenting fresh water, should have 

 ascended an inland river, to the distance of about one hundred and fifty miles 

 from its termination in the ocean, appeared to me a somewhat extraordinary fact : 

 and I should have been induced very strongly to suspect the correctness of the 

 statement made to Mr. Bird, had not that gentleman, who is a very accurate and 

 cautious observer, assured me that the fish exhibited the peculiar silvery lustre, 

 and all the other characters of freshness, which indicated that life could not have 

 been, many hours, extinct. I have, this day, seen Mr. Bird's informant ; and 

 questioned him very closely on the subject. He states that he took the fish, 

 given to Mr. Bird, and another, considerably larger, of the same species, with a 

 net, in the river Tame, just below Hop was bridge ; that it is the only instance of 

 the capture of such fish in fresh water, which has fallen under his observation ; 

 but that an old fisherman, of Tamworth, recollects having taken a Gar-pike, about 

 twenty years ago, in the river Tame, near Hopwas. 



I shall feel much obliged by the communication, through the medium of The 

 Naturalist, of any fact calculated to throw light upon this obscure and, in my 

 opinion, still somewhat doubtful statement. That such a fish as the Gar-pike, 

 which, however agile and vivacious, is not known to possess the saltatorial powers 

 of the Salmon, should have made its way over the numerous weirs existing on the 

 course of the Tame and Trent between Hopwas and the point of conflux of the 

 latter with the Humber, it is difficult to conceive. A few weeks previously to 

 the date of this reported capture, the Trent and its tributary streams had, I may, 

 however, observe, been swollen to an unwonted height by the rapidly-dissolving 

 snows, and profuse rains, of the early spring. 



I shall conclude my brief notice with a slight outline of the generic and spe- 

 cific characters of this curious fish, and an exposition of the site which it occupies 

 in the modern systems of Ichthyology. 



The Gar-pike, associated, in the System of Linneus, with the common pike, 

 under the title of Esox belone, has, of late, been separated from Esox, and taken 

 as the type of a new genus, named Belone, from b$xov*i, the Greek designation of 

 the gar-pike. The following are the generic characters of Belone ; as traced by 

 Fleming and Yarrell. Muzzle attenuated and greatly prolonged. Intermaxillary 

 bones forming the entire margin of the upper jaw. Both jaws furnished with 

 minute teeth ; none, on the vomer, palatine bones, or tongue. Along each side 



