I'lKK-KISHES. 



ESOCIFORMES. 



1)97 



Phjfsostoms with the fthoukler-ffirclle suspended crs usual in tin' Tdcosts, from the head <t>i(l nithout precoracoid 



bones. The first four ahdonilnal rertehree normal hi form and derelopment. Jir-hladder, where present, simple, 



without conne.rioH irith the cranial cariti/. Jfi/omaiidihalar and j)li-rii(/ti))alati)ic arrhes roniplete, as well as the 



opercular ajijxiratus. Marillarics Julli/ derrlopcd. \o adipose fni. 



The Ksociform series corresponds to tlu; order i tins). In the Sc;indinavi:ui fauna the series is repre- 



established, under the name of Haplomi", by (Am'e''. 

 It includes tlic i*ikes {Esocidre). tlie Mud-Minnciws 

 (Umhridte, named after the Austrian and Hungarian 

 dogs-Jish'), the Toothed Carps {Cyprinodontidce — see 

 above, p. 7(1:2 — three species of which family occur 

 in Soutliern Europe), and the Blind-iishes (I/etcr- 

 (ipiplii. inhal)itants of caves and lirooks in North Ame- 



sented h\- thc^ tirst-mentioned family alone. 



The series contains \ery dissimilar forms, ])rcdat(jry 

 tisiies like the Pikes, and more iiarmless iislies of small 

 size, principally insectivorous or ev(;n mud-eaters. This 

 dissimilarity manifests itself, as usual, most clearly 

 in the form of the head and especially of the mouth. 

 In addition to the ahove-given characters, however. 



rica, a family whose maxillaries, like those of the the series has a peculiarity characteristic of the great 



Toothed (^irps, form no part of the margin of the majority among its mendiers in the backward jjosi- 



mouth, and wiiich is especially distinguished by the tion of the dorsal tin. which lies above or even behind 



forward situation (if the vent, in front of the pectoral the anal. 



Fam. ESOCID^. 



Dorsal fin situated, at least for the greater part, behind the perpendicular from the vent. Gape large. Snout 

 depressed and long {at least as long as the postorhital part of the head or onig a little shorter). Margin of the 

 upper jan- formed bg the tip of the ethmoid bone, the interma.rillaries, and the ma.rillaries. Mouth furnished with 

 canine teeth. The pneumatic duet of the simjile air-bladder runs from the anterior part thereof to the cesophagus. 



The family of tiie P'ikes differs considerably fi-oni 

 i the preceding family: a Pike and a Herring have not 

 nuich in common. But one of the most characteristic 

 external peculiarities of the Esocoid family, the caudal 

 position of the dorsal and anal fins, reappears in a. 

 Mediterranean tish Alepoeephalus, the type of a family 

 very nearly allied to the Herrings, and also in the 

 above-mentioned Paralepidince. The more predatory 

 instincts of the Pikes, however, accompanied as they 

 are by a simplification of the intestinal canal, the py- 



margins of the upper jaw are also formed almost as 

 in the Salmonoids — short, toot^ied intermaxillaries (tig. 

 253, (J and F, pmx) and long, though here toothless, 

 maxillaries (w?;r), each with a well-developed supple- 

 mentary bone (,/) — but show a pecularity which we 

 have not seen in the preceding tishes, and which is all 

 the more important, from a systematic point of view, 

 to the explanation of the forms immediately following 

 this family. The intermaxillaries, which we have 

 hitherto found to be more or less closely applied to 



loric appendages having entirely disappeared, range '\ each other at the tip of the snout, are here (tig. 253, 

 these fishes nearer to the Salmonoids, in spite of the j C, pmx) separated by the cartilaginous end of the 

 numerous jjyloric appendages of the latter. The lateral : ethmoid bone (fig. 253, A. f. and E, etcr). which 



" anXoog, simple and COjJOg, shoulder; i. e. without precoracoid in the shonlder-girdle 

 '■ Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, Philnd., n. ser. vol. XIV (1871), p. 45,'). 

 '■ Heckel and Kxer: ■'iusswasserf. Ostreich. Moii., p. 291. 



