QARPIKE8. 



V 



ton ie solid and bony. Tin arpikes and mud- 



fish. 



The garpike8 (Fig. L97) have large mouths and la: 

 conical, sharp teeth, and tin- body is encased in an enami 

 coal of mail. They are the terror of the M 

 and its branches, asthej iy all the smaller fish. The 



larg( -■ is the alligator gar | L wtula), 



Fig. 196.— Protopterus annectena, a Lung-fish i>t* Africa. One third natural 



which is sometimes nearly three yards (three mi 



;h. and sometimes weighing - ral hundred pom 

 So hard, - : irmor, thai a blow with an axe cannot pi 

 trate its back, the only vulnerable point being its tl • 

 the back of its head. Ir inhabits the lower M ssissippi and 

 the stagnant bayous and slug streams entering it. The 



spawn resembles thai of the toad, forming 



eral inches in diameter, which are hung on 



roots. The eggs are laid in December and January, the 



young appearing in the spring, becoming fourteen inches 



long by the end of Angus 



* See an interesting account of this remarkable fish, 1 y (.; P, 1 1 

 bar, in the American Naturalist for ' 



