BACKBONED ANIMALS. 



Pikes (Esocidce). The pikes (Fig. 219) have long, 

 depressed snouts, and with a single exception (Esox lutius) 

 b along to the United States. The Muskallonge of the 

 Great Lakes attains a length of four feet 



FIG. 219. Pike 



TsiOTE. All the family are voracious, often attacking ducks and even 

 larger birds. They have been known to live over a hundred years. 

 The pickerel is common in the various rivers and lakes of North 

 America. A pike has been observed by an English naturalist to leap 

 a foot out of water, and take a young bird from an overhanging limb. 



Flying-Fishes (Exvcaetus). The flying-fishes range 

 from Cape Cod to Florida, and in many seas. The pec- 

 toral fins are developed in a remarkable manner, so that 

 they resemble wings. When the fish rises from the sea, 

 the tail is worked vigorously, the wing-like pectorals vi- 

 brate rapidly, and once clear of the water the fish soars 

 away, with or without the movement of the fins, either in 

 a straight line, or curving by a motion of the tail, often 

 clearing a distance of a quarter of a mile (Fig. 223). 



Gar-Fishes (Belonida). The gar-fishes have long, 

 slender bodies, the jaws narrow, pointed, and armed with 

 extremely sharp teeth. They almost invariably lie at the 

 surface. They are green above and silvery beneath. 



NOTE. They attain a length of two feet and over. In the Pacific 

 they are of large size, and when alarmed leap away in a series of bounds 

 out of water, and very often, according to Moseley, occasion the death 

 of natives wading about by accidentally striking them, the bill piercing 

 the flesh like an arrow. The Hemirhamphus has only the lower jaw 

 elongated, and is a light-bearer, having a gleaming, phosphorescent 

 pustule at the tip of its tail. 



