FAMILY ESOCID.. pps? | 
GENUS BELONE. Cuwvier. 
Head and body greatly elongated ; the latter covered with minute scales. Both jaws very 
much produced, straight, narrow and pointed ; armed with numerous small teeth. Pharynx 
paved. Scales not apparent, except a carinate row near the edge of the abdomen. ° 
THE BANDED GAR-FISH. 
BELONE TRUNCATA. 
PLATE XXXV. FIG. 112—(STATE COLLECTION.) 
Esox, Sea Pike, Sea Snipe at New-York. Scuorrrr, Beobacht. Vol. 8, p. 108. 
The Bill-fish, Esox belone. Mircutur, Lit. and Philos. Soc. N.Y. Vol. 1, p. 443. 
Esox longirostris, Long-jawed Fresh-water Pike. Mircuiti, Am. Month. Mag. Vol. 2, p. 322. 
Belona truncata, Lesueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. Vol. 2, p- 126, plate. 
The Gar-fish, Belone truncata, STORER, Massachusetts Report, p. 98. 
Characteristics. Green above ; silvery beneath. A dark green longitudinal band. Lower 
mandible longest. Length one to two feet. 
Description. Body much elongated ; covered with small transparent orbicular scales. Over 
and behind the end of the anal, on each side of the tail, is a row of carinated scales. The 
lateral line arises from the lower angle of the opercles ; ascends gradually beneath the pecto- 
rals, maintaining a direction near the abdomen ; passes over the base of the ventrals, and behind 
the anal, rises up and follows the course of the carinated scales. The vertebral line marked 
above by a slight depression from the dorsal fin to the nape. On each side of this line, at the 
distance of 0°2, is a faint darker line concurrent with it. Head and opercles trigonal, flat 
above. Eyes longitudinally oval, 0°6 in their greatest diameter, and with the upper margin 
of the orbits in the plane of the head; their distance apart equal to the same diameter. A 
triangular fossa in front of the eyes, extending forward into an acutely pointed furrow for the 
nostrils. Branchial aperture very ample, extending forward beneath the orbits. Upper man- 
dible flattened at its base, rounded forward, and terminating in an acute tip, its upper margin 
with a medial and two lateral impressed lines : it is 0°3 shorter than the lower jaw, which is 
elastic and flexible at its tip. Both mandibles furnished with: long conic acute distant teeth, 
with intermediate smaller ones, externally in confused series ; towards the angle of the jaws, 
the smaller ones are exserted. The interior of the upper jaw with a longitudinal furrow, of 
the lower, transversely rugous. Length of the mandibles to the whole length as one to five 
nearly. 
The dorsal fin arises far back, commencing over the fourth ray of the anal; it is elevated, 
triangular in front, low and subequal behind, the second and third rays longest. ‘This fin is 
composed of one simple and fifteen branched rays. The pectorals on a line with the posterior 
angle of the opercles, and 0°4 behind it ; composed of one flat, simple and scarcely articulated 
ray, and eleven branched rays. Ventrals feeble ; their distance from the origin of the anal, 
