EISHES SWALLOWED BY GAR PIKE 



As is well known, gar pikes are highly pre- 

 dacious fish. They devour vast numbers of food 

 and game fishes ; and in localities where they are 

 abundant they are treated as pests and destroyed 

 by the thousand. 



But although their voracious habits are well- 

 known, there do not appear to be any definite 

 records as to the size of the fish they swallow. 

 This is due to the fact that only a very few out of 

 the thousands of gars taken annually are opened, 

 and among these it is rare to find one containing a 

 fish newly ingested and still recognizable. The 

 following two records accordingly seem worth pre- 

 serving. 



During a stay of seven weeks at Moon Lake, 

 Miss., a few years ago, I saw over a dozen large 

 alligator gars (Lepisosteus tristaclius), some of them 

 over 9 feet long, cut up by negroes to smoke for use 

 as food in the winter. In one instance I saw a 

 fish taken from the stomach of a gar. It was a 

 crappie, or calico bass (Pomoxis sparoides), 6 inches 

 long. 



The second record is the following : The New 

 York Aquarium recently received an alligator gar 

 which had been shipped alive from the loAver 

 Mississippi at Memphis, Tenn. It died on the way 

 north, and on reaching the Aquarium was turned 

 over to the Museum, where it was skeletonized. 

 It measured 6 feet 6 inches in length, and on being 

 opened it was found to contain a flat-nosed gar 

 (Lepisosteus platostomus) 2 feet 2 inches in length, 

 or exactly one-third its own length. The ingested 

 fish had apparently been but recently swallowed ; 

 it was still intact, only the scales and head bones 

 having begun to disintegrate in a few places. It 

 lay in the alimentary canal with the head pointed 

 toward the tail of its captor, indicating that it had 

 been engulfed head first and not from behind. 



L. HUSSAKOF, 



Wew York, iV. Y. 



