162 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



head are scaly. The dorsal and anal fins are similar in outline, the anterior rays of 

 both being much longer than those toward the rear. Both fins, too, are situated 

 far back, the dorsal originating slightly behind the forward edge of the anal. The 

 ventrals stand halfway between the eye and the base of the caudal. The latter fin 

 is only slightly emarginate, this fact being the readiest field mark to separate this 

 gar from the only other species of its genus ( Tylosurus acus) so far actually taken 

 near Gulf of Maine limits, for the tail of the latter is deeply forked. There is a 

 distinct ridge or low keel on either side of the caudal peduncle.*" 



Color. — Greenish, darker above, with silvery sides, dull olive fins, and a dark 

 bar on the gill cover. Scales and bones green. 



Size. — The silver gar grows to a length of 4 feet. 



General range. — Maine to Texas; very abimdant on the south Atlantic and 

 Gulf coasts of the United States, often running up fresh rivers above tide water. 



Fig. 68.— Silver gar ( Ttilosurus marinus) . After Storer 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The silver gar is common enough along the 

 southern shores of New England, e. g., at Woods Hole and in Rhode Island waters, 

 where it is to be found from June to October. Like many other southern fishes, 

 however, it seldom journeys eastward past Cape Cod, the only definite records of 

 it in the Gulf of Maine being of several specimens collected by Dr. William C. 

 Kendall at WoKsneck, Freeport, and Casco Bay, Me., and at Monomoy Island, the 

 southern elbow of Cape Cod. We have not met it within the limits of the Gulf 

 of Maine, nor have we heard even a rumor of its presence there from fishermen, 

 pretty good evidence that it is as rare a straggler as the few records indicate, for 

 large silver gars are not fish to be overlooked. With so little claim to mention 

 here, we need merely note that it is very voracious, feeding on all sorts of smaller 

 fishes, and that it runs inshore, possibly even into river mouths, to spawn. The eggs, 

 described by Ryder, ^' are about 3.6 mm. (one-seventh of an inch) in diameter, 

 and stick together and to any object they may touch, by long threads scattered 

 over their surface. '^ 



^ There are many other species of gars in tropical seas, any one of which viitjht stray northward with the Gulf Stream and so 

 to the Gulf of Maine. The silver gar is identifiable among them all by the following combination of characters (no one character 

 alone marks it out among its relatives): Mouth capable of being nearly closed; caudal peduncle with keels; dorsal and anal fins 

 short, the former 15-rayed, the latter 17-rayed; eyes at least one-third as broad as the post orbital part of head is long; body not 

 excessively slender but at least one-flfth to one-sixth as deep as head (including jaws) is long. Jordan and Evermann (1396-1900, 

 p. 709) give a useful key to the species of the family. 



«' Bulletin, United States Fish Commission, Vol. I, 1881 (1882) p. 283. 



8s The closely allied houndfish ( Tylosurus acus Laci'pede) has been taken at Nantucket, but has not been found within the 

 Gulf of Maine. However, since it is not unlikely to appear there as a stray from the south we may point out that it is easily 

 distinguished from the silver gar, which it resembles in general appearance, by its deeply forked instead of only slightly emarginate 

 tail and by the fact that its dorsal and anal fins are much longer, the former with 23, the latter with 21 rays. The following char- 

 acters in combination will serve to Identify it among the several tropical gars: Mouth nearly closable and upper jaw not arched; 

 long dorsal and anal fins; beak at least twice as long as rest of head ; greatest depth of body not more than two-thirds the length of 

 pectoral fin; no lateral stripe. 



