418 PISCES (OSSEI) MALACOPT. [Esox. 



snout broad and depressed, rounded at the extremity; lower jaw pro- 

 jecting beyond the upper: intermaxillaries, vomer, palatines, tongue, 

 pharyngeans, and branchial arches, armed with sharp card-like teeth 

 of unequal lengths; also a series of long sharp teeth on the sides of 

 the lower jaw : eyes moderate, situate half-way between the end of the 

 snout and posterior edge of the opercle : nostrils a little in advance : above 

 and below each orbit, beneath the lower jaw on each side, and along the 

 margin of the preopercle, a row of pores : gill-opening very large : cheeks 

 and upper part of the opercle covered with small scales; scales on the 

 body moderate, oblong-oval, with the basal margin three-lobed: lateral 

 line at first slightly descending, but afterwards straight: dorsal placed 

 very far back, commencing at about two-thirds of the entire length ; first 

 six rays simple, gradually increasing in length, the first being very short; 

 seventh longest ; this and all the succeeding ones branched : anal similar 

 to the dorsal, and answering to it : caudal forked : pectorals attached low 

 down, not half the length of the head, rounded ; fourth ray longest : 

 ventrals equal to the pectorals, placed at about the middle of the entire 

 length; third ray longest: 



B. 14 or 15*; D.21; A. 18 or 19 ; C. 19, &c. ; P. 15; V. 11. 



(Colours.) Head, back, and sides, bright olive-green spotted with yellow, 

 or, when out of season, greenish gray with pale spots ; more or less of 

 a metallic gloss; belly white: fins dusky, spotted and variegated with 

 red. 



Probably indigenous, though usually supposed to have been intro- 

 duced into England during the reign of Henry VIII. Found in rivers, 

 lakes, and most stagnant waters. Very voracious, preying on other fish, 

 including its own species, as well as water-rats and young water-fowl. 

 Is very long-lived. Grows rapidly, and occasionally attains a weight of 

 thirty, forty, or even sixty pounds. Spawns in March and April. 



GEN. 38. BELONE, Nob. 



(1. BELONE, Cuv.) 

 100. B. vulgaris, Flem. (Common Gar-Fish.) 



B. vulgaris, Flem. Brit. An. p. 184. Esox Belone, Linn. Syst. 

 Nat. torn. i. p. 517. Block, Ichth. pi. 33. Don. Brit. Fish. 

 vol. in. pi. 64. Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 105. Horn-Fish or Gar- 

 Fish, Will. Hist. Pise. p. 231. tab. P. 2. f. 4. Gar-Pike, Penn. 

 Brit. Zoo/, vol. HI. p. 324. pi. 63. Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. in. p. 429. 

 pi. 74. Gar-Fish, Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 391. 



LENGTH. From eighteen inches to two feet; rarely more. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Subcylindrical, slender, and very much elon- 

 gated : depth nearly uniform till past the commencement of the dorsal 

 and anal fins, contained seventeen times and a half in the entire length : 

 thickness rather more than two-thirds of the depth: abdomen flat, 

 bounded on each side by a longitudinal series of large scales, forming 

 a sort of lateral keel which runs the whole length of the body : head, 

 snout included, contained a little more than three times and a half in the 

 entire length ; cranium flat and horizontal ; cheeks vertical ; snout prd- 

 duced into a long, slender, sharp-pointed beak; the lower jaw consider- 

 ably the longest: both jaws armed at their edges with a single row of 



* One individual was found to have fourteen on one side and fifteen on the other. 



