ICHTHYOLOGY. 



253 



Classifica- Algerine fish which is distinguished from Ciiprinodon by the want of 

 tion — Ma- ventrals. We know it only by a brief notice in the Archiven fur 

 lacopteri. XaturgescMchte, and are not told in what respect it differs from 



^^mm^.^'^m^ OrCstiuS, 



Gf.nus IX. Anableps, Bloch. Elongated scaly fishes, with a 

 fiattisb, rounded baclc, and depressed head. The nia.xiUaries cany 

 no teeth, and do not enter into tlie composition of the border of the 

 moutli, which is formed above by the preinaxillaries alone. On 

 these there are teeth, tiie outer row being moveable like those of 

 Pcecilia, and the inner ones minute, in a crowded band ; roof of the 

 mouth smooth, edentate ; tongue a very small tubercle ; pharyn- 

 geal teeth two plate^ above and below, conical pointed, villiform, 

 crowded ; lips thick ; eyes prominent under a scaly arch, having 

 the cornea and iris divided by a lonf;itudinal band; so as to give 

 thorn tile appearance of being double. Branchiostegals five. In 

 the male the excretory canal of the organs of generation, common 

 also to the urinary bladder, is carried along the front of the anal 

 beyond the tip of its first I'ay, in a tapering, scaly appendage, 

 with the orifice at the extremity. The female is viviparous, but 

 seldom produces more than seven or eight young at a time. Air- 

 bladder pretty large, with a pneumatic duct in the fcetal state, which 

 is obliterated as the fish attains maturity. Four or five species. 



Gknus X. DlPLOPTEBUS, Gray. {Lucioccphalun, lileeker.) Is 

 placed by its affinities between Cyprinodon and Esox ; the exist- 

 ence of vomerine teeth brings it near Panchax, which it resembles 

 in the position of the ventrals under the pectorals. A single anacan- 

 thous dorsal opposite the anal. Upper half of tlie mouth composed 

 of the very protractile premaxillaries, which have moreover a 

 tuft of teeth on their ascending pedicels, and uniserial teeth on 

 their labial limbs; mandibular teeth pluriserial in front; vomer 

 rough, with minute teeth; four complete branchial arches; no 

 pseudobranchiiE ; inferior pharyngeals widely separated, armed 

 with conical teeth. Gill-openings large, coming foi'W'ard under the 

 eye. Branchiostegals five. Nostrils two in the preorbitar space. 

 Scales Ctenoid on the body. Cycloid on the head. Stomach csecal, 

 intestine short; no pancreatic cu^ca. 



Genus XI. Panchax, Ilamilt. Buch. Thickly fusiform scaly 

 fishes, highest in the middle, and tapering rather more towards the 

 head than posteriorly. Dorsal far back over the posterior part of 

 the larger anal ; abdominal ventrals before the middle of the fish. 

 Upper arch of the mouth formed by the premaxillaries, behind 

 whose descending limbs the maxillary lies and does not touch the 

 edge of the orifice, which is garnislied all round by a narrow band 

 of teeth as fine as hairs. Teeth on the palatines; branchiostegals 

 five. 



Genus XII. V'andellia, Valenc. Body elongated, rounded, 

 slenderer anteriorly; snout depressed, prominent; mouth small, 

 situated on the ventral aspect; lips thick, with a fleshy barbel at 

 the corners of the mouth on each side; teeth on the vomer; none, 

 or little visible teeth on other parts of tlie mouth. Ventrals small, 

 on the posterior third of the body ; dorsal standing over the interval 

 between the ventrals and anal. One species, India. 



ESOCID.E. 



By the abstraction of groups formerly included in the 

 Pike family, only a single genus remains to represent it, 

 and of this there is only one European species, viz., 

 Esox lucius, Linn, (the common Pike). During the 

 earliest stage of its lite it is of a greenish hue, but in tlie 

 second year it becomes gray with pale spots, the latter 

 ultimately aciiuiring a yellowish colour. Its markings, 



however, are very variable, and instances have occurred of 

 its being perfectly white. It is one of the largest of fresh- 



water fishes, and indeed, if the accounts which some writers 

 give are not exaggerated, it occasionally attains a size not 

 greatly inferior to the gigantic inhabitants of the ocean. 

 Individuals are recorded as measuring (i-om 5 to 9 li^et 

 in length. They frequently weigh above 30 lb. in the 

 lakes of the north of England; and Dr Grierson mentions 

 one taken in Loch Ken, in Galloway, which weightd 

 61 lb. Pallas states that the lakes in the government of 

 Tobolsk in Siberia nourish multitudes of Pikes which at- 

 tain the size of between 30 and 40 lb. In North America, 

 which seems to be the headquarters of tlie tiunily, since 

 not only the conuiion European s[)ecies, but several others 

 exist in the great lakes of that country, 30 lb. is con- 

 sidered a large size, though doubtless some individuals 

 attain a greater weigiit. Most authors have cited the 

 accounts of one said to have been caught at Kaiserslautern, 

 near Manheim, in 1497, vvhich was nearly 19 feet in 

 length, and weighed 350 lb. The skeleton of this extra- 

 ordinary specimen was for a long time preserved, and bore 

 a brass ring with an inscription to the effect that the fish 

 was put into a pond by the hands of the Emperor Frederick 

 II., the oth of October 1262. From this it is inferred that 

 it was upwards of 235 years old. M. Valenciennes enters 

 at some length into a critical examination of the truth of 

 this story. Gesner, who lived soon after the time assigned 

 to the capture of this remarkable fish, and vvho might have 

 known eye-witnesses of the event, says that it was caught 

 near Heilbronn, in Suabia; and in 1592 Lehman saw a 

 painting of the Pike and a sketch of the ring ke|)t in a 

 tower on the road from Heilbronn to Spires, and the piece 

 of water whence it was taken was still named Kaiserioug, 

 or the Emperor's Lake, in 1612. There seems to be no 

 doubt but a fish of great size and great age vvas taken about 

 the time mentioned, but there are discrepancies enough in 

 the various accounts that are given of it by authors to make 

 the details doubtful ; and a celebrated anatomist having 

 examined the skeleton of the said Pike, then kept in the 

 Cathedral of Manheim, Ibund the vertebrae to be more nu- 

 merous than those of a single Pike, and in fact that the 

 skeleton had been lengthened to fit the story, which had 

 itself luidergone the same process from that love of the 

 marvellous which is common to every age. The common 

 Pike is not only an inhabitant of most of the larger waters 

 of Europe and northern Asia, but it is certainly one of 

 the native fishes of North America. This is a question of 

 interest to those who are engaged in tracing the distribu- 

 tion of animals, and some pains were taken to ascertain the 

 identity of the species in the two hemispheres. A specimen 

 brought from Lake Hmon was examined by Baron Cuvier 

 and M. Valenciennes, and found to be the same with the 

 European one ; and Sir John Richardson carefully compared 

 the European and American fishes with each other without 

 detecting any specific difference. Some American ichthyolo- 

 gists have questioned the accuracy of these examinations, 

 but they do not appear to have given sufficient weight to 

 the fact of there being more than one species in the great 

 lakes of their country, and the chance of the specimen they 

 commented on being one of these. E. estor inhabits Lake 

 Huron, as \\e\\ as E. lucius, and most likely there are others 

 in that lake or in the fiesh-water seas that communicate 

 with it. M. Yarrcll gives some interesting facts respecting 

 the value of this fish at different periods of English history. 

 Edward the First fixed the jirice of a Pike higher than that 

 of fresh Salmon, and ten times greater than that of the best 

 Turbot or Cod ; and in the reign of Henry the Eighth a 

 large one was sold for double the price of house-lamb in 

 February, and a Pickerel or young Pike for more than a 

 fat capon. These facts are sufficient to show the error of 

 some writers en British ichthyology, who have fixed upon 

 the reign of Henry the Eighth as the epoch of the intro- 

 duction of the Pike into the British isles ; which Albin says 



