SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 59 



feet, and is a very hardy, destructive species, preying on almost every other 

 kind of fish. It spawns in spring, in shallow water. 



In North Carolina it is found in the lowland streams and sluggish coastal 

 waters generally, sometimes entering salt water. In Albemarle Sound the 

 species is not rare, and is taken in shad seines and other apparatus. At the 

 Avoca shad fishery in April, 1899, the author saw two 4-foot gars skinned, boiled, 

 and eaten with gusto by negro fishermen. Dr. Capehart states that before the 

 days of steel plows his grandfather used to cover his plow-shares with the skin of 

 the gar pike. 



Mr. Earll, in 1880, noted a fishery for gars in Neuse River near New Bern, 

 and said of the fish trade of that city: 



The coarsest species are not only seen in the markets, but they make up the bulk of 

 the sales. The gar (L. osseus) , not seen by us in any other market in the country, is one of 

 the principal food-fishes here, wliere it is highly prized by negroes. 



At the present time the gar can not be said to be one of the principal food 

 fishes of the New Bern market; but the fish is still regularly sold there, and one 

 of the common sights on the wal;er front is a negro skinning a gar. 



The expression "common as gar broth " is proverbial. The meat of thisfish, 

 however, is well-flavored and wholesome, and its consumption should become 

 more general. There is a limited demand for the skin, which may be used in 

 covering boxes, sword hilts, etc. 



It is now nearly 200 years since Lawson wrote the following account of the 

 "white guard-fisli", in contradistinction to the "green guard-fish" (Tylosurus): 



The white guard-fish is shaped almost like a pike, but slenderer; his mouth has a long 

 small bill set with teeth, in whicli he catches small fish; his scales are knit together like armour. 

 When they dress him, they strip him, takmg off scales and skin together. His meat is very 

 white, and rather looks like flesh than fish. The English account them no good fish; but the 

 Indians do. The gall of this fish is green, and a violent cathartick, if taken inwardly. 



Order CYCLOGANOIDEA. The Cylindrical Ganoids. 



Family AMIATID^. The Bow-fins. 



This family includes only one living species, widely distributed in the 

 United States. Features by which the family may be distinguished are given 

 in the foregoing key. Body long and stout; head blunt; jaws toothed, the lower 

 jaw with a bony plate between the rami; teeth also on vomer, palatal, and ptery- 

 goid bones; tongue thick; nosti'ils well separated; cheeks and top of head with 

 bony plates; a broad flat skin on the edge of the opercle; no pseudobranchiae; 

 gill-rakers short and stout; scales hard, cycloid, with a soft border; lateral line 

 present; tail heterocercal; air-bladder bifid anteriorly, serving as a lung. 



Genus AMIATUS Rafinesque. Bow-fins. 



Characters of the genus are sufficiently indicated in the family diagnosis. 

 The generic name Amia, which has heretofoi-e been used in this connection, 



