THE BONY PIKE AND ITS KINDRED 



2883 



Existing 

 Family 



fication of the internal skeleton; the scales being always of the typical quadrangular 

 ganoid type, and the branchiostegal rays having no gular plate in advance of them. 

 As a family, the bony pike, of which the common species {Lepi- 

 dosteus osteus} is shown in our illustration, are distinguished from all 

 other fish by having the bodies of the vertebrae convex in front and 

 concave behind, instead of having both surfaces cupped. The fins are furnished 

 with fulcra, the dorsal and anal consisting of soft rays only, and placed far back 

 and near the caudal, which is of the abbreviated heterocercal type; while the trunk 

 is much .longer than the abdominal portion of the vertebral column, and the bran- 

 chiostegal rays are comparatively few, and have not an enameled outer surface. 



BONY PIKE. 



(One-sixth natural size.) 



In form the body of the bony pike is elongate and subcylindrical ; the long muzzle is 

 either spatulate or beak shaped; the cleft of the mouth wide; and both the palate 

 and jaws are armed with bands of rasp-like teeth, and also with larger conical ories. 

 There are four gills and three branchiostegal rays on each side; and the air bladder 

 is cellular. Bony pike, of which there are three existing species, are now confined 

 to North and Central America and Cuba; but they are represented in the European 

 Eocene, and by allied extinct genera in the Eocene and Miocene strata of the 

 United States, one of these also occurring in the French Eocene. The existing 

 forms grow to a length of six feet, and are carnivorous, feeding upon smaller fishes. 

 They are often known by the name of gar pike, although, as mentioned on p. 2771, 

 that title is best restricted to a totally different group. 



