FISHES OF NEW YORK 287 



Color of upper parts olive brown or grayish, sides below lateral 

 line paler, belly yellowish, pectorals, ventrals and anal with a 

 yellow tint, caudal dusky, dorsal with traces of narrow bars, 

 inside of mouth and of gill openings yellow. 



The lizard fish reaches a length of 12 inches; it is found from 

 Cape Cod to Brazil, being very common from Virginia southward. 

 It conies into shallow waters during the summer and remains 

 on the New York coast till October. It is a voracious species, of 

 no value as food. 



Adults and young of this species are rather common in the 

 Great Egg bay region, N. J. 



At Beesleys Point, Sep. 2, 1887, a small individual was found 

 to have swallowed a Pleuronectes americanus, which 

 distended the stomach of its captor laterally to nearly twice its 

 normal width. 



Abundant in thoroughfares near Somers Point August 30. 

 One individual taken is 7J inches long. Some very large ones 

 have been seen; an example caught at Beesleys Point, Septem- 

 ber 9, is nearly 9 inches long, and we have secured some larger 

 than this. 



The species is unknown to the fishermen. 



The lizard fish, called sand pike by some authors, is the trout 

 pike of Mitchill. Besides bearing these names, it is known as 

 snakefish, cigar fish and spearfish. The species appears not to 

 have been known to De Kay. It is very common in Great South 

 bay, 36 specimens having been taken in the latter part of Sep- 

 tember and the first two days of October. Mitchill's examples 

 from the head of Xew York bay were from 8 to 9 inches long, 

 in Great Egg Harbor bay, though it is a very common fish, the 

 fishermen have no name for it. 



Order HAPL.UMI 

 Pikelike Fishes 

 Family UXIBRIDAE: 



Mud Minnows 

 Genus UMBRA (Kramer) Mtiller 



Body oblong, covered with cycloid scales of moderate size, 

 without radiating striae; no lateral line; head shortish, little 



