(iAHl'lKKS. 



345 



esteemed as food. At certain times they approach the 

 coast in shoals; and then they are sometimes taken in 

 enormous quantities, thus being of gi'eat economical 

 importance to man. Some of tliem also attain a con- 

 siderable size. One species, the principal object of 

 sport for the English garrison in Bermuda, is said to 

 attain a length of 5 or 6 feet (15 — 18 dm.). They 

 are pronounced fishes of prey, though they can swallow 

 only comparatively small objects, such as small fishes, 

 crustaceans and insects. "I have seen a Needle-fish"," 

 says Steauns*, "of fifteen or twenty inclies length seize 

 mullet and other fish fully one third of its own size, 

 which often prove more than it ca,n manage. They are 

 sometimes washed ashore dead, with some spiny fish 

 that was a little too large fixed in their throats." Their 

 voracity, however, renders the Garpikes real pests to 

 other fishes, especially small fry. 



In a systematical respect the Garpikes like the 

 following genus, are of special interest on account of 

 tlieir changes of growth. In the harljour of Polperro 

 (Cornwall), in July, 1818, Couch" found a small fish, 

 about an inch long, actively swimming about at the 

 surface, which he took to be Linn^us's Esox brasili- 

 ensis, i. e., according to the system of modern times, 

 a representative of Hemirmnphus, a genus common in 

 the tropic seas, with only the lower jaw elongated, the 

 upper jaw forming a more or less nearly equilateral 

 triangle. In August, 1837, on the other side of Eng- 

 land, oft" the coast of Suftblk, Clarke'' also found a 

 shoal of this fish, about two inches long, and supposed 

 them to be the young of the common Garpike. This 

 was also Behn's" opinion of the large shoals of similar 

 small fish, between 20 and 36 mm. long, which he 

 found in Kiel Bay in June, 1842, and specimens of which 



were shown in the same j'ear byA'AX der Hoeven at the 

 Meeting of Scandinavian Naturalists in Stockholm-^ Yar- 

 rell^ and Hornschuch'', on the other hand, were of 

 opinion that these young specimens were iriie JTewi- 

 raniphi, and that the fauna of Europe thus contained 

 one' or even two-' species of this tropical geiuis. Valenci- 

 ennes rejected this opinion, and unhesitatingly stated* 

 that "in early youth the Garpikes Jiave a sliort beak, 

 and the lower jaw is elongated before the upper ja\\- 

 has reached its full development. IIufpei.l has made 

 the same remark witli regard to the Sa>iries {Scomber- 

 esox)." This was one of the first observations to give 

 undisputable evidence of the natural development of 

 these genera from one another. The Hemlrainplil re- 

 present the earlier stages of the development of the 

 family; and the forms which occupy the more advanced 

 stages of this course of development, tlie Garpikes and 

 Sauries, pass through Hemiramph stages in their youth. 

 The course of this development has subsequently been 

 still further elucidated by Malm' and Lutken"'. We 

 have borrowed from the latter author the instructive 

 figures which he has appended to his description of 

 the changes of the head during growth both in Scom- 

 bresox and Bamphlstoma". In early youth (fig. 92, «), 

 while the length of the body is still less than 13 mm., 

 both jaws are short, like those of the Flying-fish. In 

 specimens 15 mm. long the loAver jaw projects, \\\i\\ 

 a protuberance, bent downwards, under the tip, while 

 the upper jaw is still almost truncate or forms a broad 

 obtuse angle. In specimens 25 mm. long the snout 

 and lower jaw roughly present the appearance shown 

 in fig. [■i in the Avoodcut, with the tip of the loAver 

 jaw bent downwards; and along the middle of the 

 under surface of the lower jaw there hangs a dermal 



"« This is tlie name given to the Garpike or Silver Garfish by the fishermen of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as those of Italy and Spain. 



* Bkown-Goode, Fish., Fish. Industr. U. A'., sect. I, p. 459. 

 ■^ Trans. Lin. Soc. Land., vol. XIV, part. I, p. 85. 



'' Y.Mii!., Brit. Fish., ed. 2, vol. I, p. 451. 

 ^Tijdschr. v. Natuurl. Gesch., vol. X (1843), p. 5. 

 .'' See the Proceedings of the Meeting, p. 648. 

 'J Brit. Fish., 1. c. 



* Tiidschr. Nat. Gesch., 1. c, p. 296. 

 ' Hemiramphus europceus, Yaku. 



J Hem. ballicus, Hornscu., a name which V. d. Hoeven, however, proposed to exchange for Hem. Behnii. 



* Cuv., Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. XIX, p. 6 — 1846. 



' Gbgs Vet., Vitt. Samh. Handl., Ny Tidsfoljd, Hiift. 2 (1851), p. 106; Ofvers. Vet.-Akad. Forh. 1852, p. 230, tab. Ill, fig. 2; 

 Ghgs, Boh. Fn., p. 554. 



'" Vid. Selsk. Skr. Kbhvn, 5:te Ra>kke, Naturv., Math. Afd., vol. XII, p. 564. 



" The Royal Museum has received an abundant supply of young specimens of Ramphistoma, between 15 and 60 mm. long, partly 

 taken by Mr. C. A. H.^NSSON in the neighbourhood of Stromstad and Dynekil, in the month of July, and partly from the Skager Rack, where, 

 in July, 1879, tlie Expedition of the gunboat Gtinhild found the young of this species at the surface in about 330 fathoms of water. 



Scandinavian Fishes. 



44 



