FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



silvery on the belly. It grows to a length of five 

 feet, but eighteen inches or less is the average size 

 of those met with in ^ms of New England. 



It ranges from Verm h to the Rio Grande, 



and must not be ith the needle fish of 



the salt water nnilar popular names, 



and looks v< like it, although the first 



is exclusively water fish, and the latter an 



anadromous doubtless ascending above 



tide-water t< The distinct coloration of 



the two fishes will at once differentiate them ; 

 the fresh- water species being a 

 i^h, and the other green and I 

 Another species of the gar 

 the Great Lakes and doubtless in Lake Cham- 

 plain, It is known as the short-nosed gar, Lepisos- 

 piatostomus y signifying " broad mouth." Its 

 usually not more than one-third longer 

 tc rest of the head, and sometimes only 

 it ; it is rather darker in color than the 

 ed gar, and seldom, if ever, grows longer 

 than et. It is not abundant in the Great 



Lakr variable in the markings 



of the b- 



The Bowfin or Dogfish. Amia calva 

 208 



