36 TELEOSTEI : HALECOMORPHI. — X. 
round black spots, distinct in young; very young with black lateral 
band. Length of snout 15 to 20 times its least width; large teeth 
of upper jaw in one row in the adult. Head 3 in length. D. 8, 
A. 9, V. 6, P.10. Lat. 1.62. L. 5 feet. Great Lakes to Carolina 
and Mexico; abundant. (Lat., bony.) 
aa. Beak shorter and broader, the snout not much longer than rest of head. 
6. Large teeth of upper jaw in one row on each side in adult: (an additional 
row on the palatines sometimes present in young.) 
45. L. platystomus Rafinesque. SHORT-NOSED GAR-PIKE. 
Snout usually 1 to 1} times rest of head, its length 5 to 6 times its 
least width. Head 33 in length, otherwise almost exactly as in 
L. osseus, the color rather darker, the size smaller. L. 3 feet. 
Miss. valley, ete., less common N. (aAarus, flat; ordua, mouth.) 
6b. Large teeth of upper jaw in two series, the inner along outer edge of 
palatines. 
46. L. tristeechus (Bloch & Schneider). ALLIGATOR GAR. | 
MANJUARI. Snout usually shorter than rest of head, its least 
width 84 in its length, otherwise essentially like the others; but 
reaching an enormous size. lL. 10 feet. Ills. to Mexico and Cuba. 
(rpis, three ; arotyos, row.) 
Orver X. HALECOMORPHI. (Tue Bow-rins.) 
This group, characterized on page 26, contains a single family 
among recent fishes. (Lat. halec, herring ; poppy, form.) 
Famity XXIII. AMIIDAX. (Tue Bow-rins.) 
Body oblong, robust, with thick cycloid scales. Head sub- 
conical, bluntish, covered above by a very hard bony helmet; 
lateral margins of upper jaws formed by the maxillaries, which are 
divided by a lengthwise suture. Mouth horizontal, its cleft extend- 
ing beyond the small eye; lower jaw broad, a broad bony striated 
gular plate placed between its rami; premaxillaries not protractile; 
jaws each with an outer series of conical teeth, behind them in the 
lower a band of rasp-like teeth; small teeth on vomer, palatines, 
and pterygoids; anterior nostril with a short barbel; cheek with 
a bony shield. B.10 to 12. No pseudobranchie, nor opercular 
gill ; two lanceolate striate appendages on each side of isthmus; 
gill rakers very short, stout. Lateral line present. Dorsal fin 
long and low, nearly uniform; no fulera; anal fin short; tail hete- 
rocercal. Vertebre double-convex, as usual among fishes. Air- 
bladder, somewhat as in the Dipnoi and Batrachia, cellular, bifid in 
front, connected by a glottis with the pharynx. No closed ovi- 
duct ; no pyloric ceca. One species known, in the lakes and slug- 
gish waters of North America,—a voracious fish, remarkably 
tenacious of life, and with soft and pasty flesh. 
