GAR-PIKE AND FLYING-FISH. 



401 



during their development the lower jaw becomes for a time much longer than the 

 upper one. Both jaws are beset with a number of rugosities, and likewise with a 

 series of long, conical teeth placed at considerable intervals. A peculiarity of 

 these fish is to be found in the green colour of their bones. Whereas the British 

 species does not exceed a couple of feet in length, some of the foreign repre- 

 sentatives of the genus may grow to as much as 5 feet. Dr. Giinther writes that, 

 skimming along the surface of the water, the gar-pike seize with their " long jaws 

 small fish, as a bird would seize them with its beak ; but their gullet is narrow, so 

 that they can swallow small fish only. They swim with an undulating motion of 

 the body ; but although they are in constant activity, their progress through the 

 water is much slower than that of the mackerels, the shoals of which sometimes 

 appear simultaneously with them on our coasts." Frequently they may be seen 

 leaping out of the water over small floating objects in sportive play, and when 



gar-pike (£ nat. size). 



struck by the hook throw themselves above the surface in violent contortions. 

 The saury, or skipper (Scombresox saurus), is the British representative of a much 

 smaller genus, differing from the gar-pikes by the minute size of the teeth, and 

 likewise by the presence of a number of small finlets behind the dorsal and anal 

 fins. On the other hand, the half-beaks (Hemirhamphus), some of which inhabit 

 fresh water, have the lower jaw larger than the upper throughout life. 



Perhaps few sights are more pleasing during a long sea-voyage 

 in an ocean steamer than to stand in the bows and to watch the 

 flying-fish rising — sometimes singly, but more frequently in larger or smaller 

 shoals — from beneath the vessel to take their beautiful flight over the crest of the 

 waves, till they once more disappear from view beneath the deep blue waters. 

 Represented by more than forty species from tropical and subtropical seas, the flying- 

 fishes, of which the common species (Exocmtus evolans) is shown in the illustration 

 on p. 314, form a genus which may be at once recognised by the great length of 

 vol. v. — 26 



Flying-Fish. 



