72 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The garpike attains to a length of 5 to 6 feet, of which the 

 head and snout usually form about one third. The body is 

 comparatively slender, equaling about one twelfth of the entire 



length. 



This species is more abundant in the Great lakes and large 

 streams than in the small rivers. It is emphatically a fish of 

 prey and extremely tenacious of life. It spawns in shoal water, 

 or in the streams, in the late spring and early summer months. 

 Occasionally taken from the northern end of Cayuga lake, but 

 not so numerous as formerly. 



The garpike is said to be nowhere used for food, because its 

 flesh is tough and is believed to be unwholesome. I have seen 

 it, however, with the bill cut off and the skin removed, offered 

 for sale in the market at Washington D. C. 



39 Lepisosteus platostomus Rafinesque 

 Sliort-nosed Gar 



Lepisoafeus platostomus Rafinesque, Ichth. Oliien. 72, 1S20; Kirtland, 



Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist. IV, 20, 1844; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, 



U. S. Nat. Mus. 110, pi. XXII, fig. 49, 1S9G. 

 Lepidostetts platystomus Gunther, Cat. Fish. Biit. Mus. VIII, 329. 1870 



Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 91, 188-3. 

 Lepisosteus platyrhiiicus De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 273, pi. 43, fig. 137, 



1842. 



The short-nosed garpike has an elongated body, its deptl 

 beingcontained seven and one half times in the length; the lengtt 

 of the head is less than one third of the length of body to base 

 of tail ; distance from eye to tip of snout greater than from ey 

 to posterior edge of opercle; upper jaw slightly longer than th 

 lower; both jaws with many long, sharp teeth. Dorsal and ana' 

 fins placed far back, near the tail; ventrals in middle of length 

 D. 8; A. 9. About 55 rows of scales between head and caudal 

 Fins all more or less black spotted. The specimen described 

 no. 3241, U. S. National Museum, from Cleveland O., is 12 inches 

 long. 



Tlic short nosed gar, because of its shorter snout, which evei 

 in young specimens does not much exceed the rest of the hea( 

 in ifjijilli, has been considered as representing a separate sub 

 genus, C y 1 i n d r o s t e u s of Rafinesque. 



