Pisces. 



1 77 



make these leaps better against the wind than in the same 

 direction as the wind. Their leaps are probably somewhat 

 like the " sailing " of birds. 



THE GANOIDS. 



We have in the United States four kinds of ganoids, the 

 gar pike, the sturgeon, the mudfish, and the spoonbill catfish. 



FIG. 112. GAR PIKE; GAR. 



The gar pike has a cylindrical body covered by rhom- 

 boidal bony scales. These scales are coated with enamel, 

 making a very strong and complete armor. The jaws ex- 

 tend, forming a long bony snout, the nostrils being at the 

 tip of the upper jaw. The teeth are sharp, and the fish 

 is voracious, but of rather sluggish habits. The tail is 

 slightly heterocercal. Three species are common in the 

 Mississippi and some of its tributaries : the long-nosed gar 

 (Fig. 112); the short-nosed gar; and the alligator gar, 

 which is said sometimes to attain a length of ten feet. 



FIG. 113. COMMON STURGEON. 



After Goode. From Kingsley's Zoology. 



The sturgeon is decidedly like a shark in general ap- 

 pearance, with its strongly heterocercal tail, its projecting 

 snout, with trie mouth well back on the ventral surface, and 



