LEPIDOSTEID^. — CXllI. 341 



t 



FAMILY CXITL — LEPID0STEIDJ3. 



{The Gar Pikes.) 



Body elongated, sub - cylindrical, covered with hard, 

 enamelled, lozenge - shaped, ganoid plates; snout elon- 

 gated, spatulate, or beak -like; upper jaw of several 

 pieces, longer than the lower, which is formed of as 

 many parts as in Reptiles; both jaws and palate armed 

 with bands of rasp - like teeth, and series of larger, 

 conical ones; fins with fulcra (elongated modified scales) 

 in front; dorsal and anal short and placed far back, 

 moderately high; vertebras concavo-convex, with ball 

 and socket joints as in Reptiles; air bladder cellular, 

 like the lungs of Reptiles, connected witli the pharynx; 

 stomach not coecal but with numerous pyloric append- 

 ages ; intestine with rudimentary spiral valve ; no spir- 

 acles; branchiostegals three; pseudobranchiie present. 

 Fresh waters of N. A., from New England to the Rocky 

 Mountains, S. to Central America and CuJja. Genera 

 two or three {Cylindrosteus seems to us to be rather a 

 sub-genus of Lejyidosteus)', species probably al)out five 

 although forty have been described; until some more 

 tangible distinctions are shown, we can admit but 

 three.* 



* In a recent ^vol•k on these fishes, Prof. August Dumeril very laboriously 

 distinguishes the following "species'' among tlie specimens of Lepidostcus in 

 tlie Museum at Paris: 



L. osscus, {Ij.) {^ L. gavialis, Lac); L. louisianensis, Dum. {= L. oxyurus, 

 Kat. = S arch ir us viitatun, Raf.); L. harlani, L. ayresi, L. smilhii, L. copci, L. 

 lnm<irii. L. clintonli, L. tronstii, L. piquotianas, L. Icsueurii, L. clizubclh. L. 

 thompsoni. L. horatii, L. milberti, L. trecalU, Dumeril; and L. huronensis, li <h. 

 Of Cylindrosteus, he finds C platystovius {'Raf.); ('. productus (Cope); C. jln- 

 tyrhynclius (DeK.); C. agassizii, V. rafinesquei, C. bartoni, C. castelnaudu and 

 C. zadocki, Dum. 



Most of these nominal species are based upon the most trifling individuil 

 differences, and often the right side of a specimen indicates one "species,"' and 

 the left another. As matters stanu, we )iave no alternative hut to rejvjci tiiein 

 all, and to wait for the lane when sjstematic writers shall be wiser or more 

 honest. 



