72 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The garpike attains to a length of 5 to 6 feet, of which the 

 head and snout usually form about one third. The body is 

 comparatively slender, equaling about one twelfth of the entire 

 length. 



This species is more abundant in the Great lakes and large 

 streams than in the small rivers. It is emphatically a fish of 

 prey and extremely tenacious of life. It spawns in shoal water, 

 or in the streams, in the late spring and early summer months. 

 Occasionally taken from the northern end of Cayuga lake, but 

 not so numerous as formerly. 



The garpike is said to be nowhere used for food, because its 

 flesh is tough and is believed to be unwholesome. I have seen 

 it, however, with the bill cut off and the skin removed, offered 

 for sale in the market at Washington D. C. 



39 Lepisosteus platostomus Rafinesque 



Short-nosed Gar 



Lepisosteus platostomus Rafinesque, Ichth. Obieu. 72, 1820; Kirtland, 



Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist. IV, 20, 1&44; Jordan & Evermann. Bull. 47, 



U. S. Nat. Mus. 110, pi. XXII, fig. 49, 1896. 

 LepidostCKS platystomus Gfnther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. VIII, 329, 1870; 



Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 91, 188.3. 

 Lepisosteus platyrliincus De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 273, pi. 43, fig. 137, 



1842. 



The short-nosed garpike has an elongated body, its depth 

 beingcontained seven and one half times in the length; the length 

 of the head is less than one third of the length of body to base 

 of tail; distance from eye to tip of snout greater than from eye 

 to posterior edge of opercle; upper jaw slightly longer than the 

 lower; both jaws with many long, sharp teeth. Dorsal and anal 

 fins placed far back, near the tail; ventrals in middle of length. 

 D. 8; A. 9. About 55 rows of scales between head and caudal. 

 Fins all more or less black spotted. The specimen described, 

 no. 3241, U. S. National Museum, from Cleveland O., is 12 inches 

 long. 



The short-nosed gar, because of its shorter snout, which even 

 in young specimens does not much exceed the rest of the head 

 in length, has been considered as representing a separate sub- 

 genus, r y 1 i n d r o s t e u s of Rafinesque. 



