THE GARFISH OR GUARD-FISH FAMILY 20/ 



naturally in the open water near the surface, and that they stick 

 only to one another without becoming attached to the bottom. 

 On the other hand, the American naturahst Ryder states that 

 the eggs of a kind of garfish sink in sea water. He has observed 

 that the eggs of one female form a cluster by the mutual adhe- 

 sion and entanglement of their threads. 



I have found young garfish among the produce of the ground 

 seine in the Hamoaze in September. They were fully developed, 

 being 4 to 5 inches long and over a year old. The younger 

 stages have been shown to undergo a curious transformation. 

 Thus Couch describes a specimen | inch long in which the jaws 

 are scarcely elongated at all, only the lower jaw is commencing 

 to grow out and is longer than the upper. At a little over 

 3^ inches the lower jaw is proportionally almost as long as in 

 the adult, but the upper jaw is still quite short. The various 

 intermediate stages have been captured at the surface and de- 

 scribed, and the connection between these young fish and the 

 garfish fully proved, although when the young fish with the 

 upper jaw undeveloped were first obtained they were described 

 as a distinct kind of fish. In tropical regions there are numer- 

 ous kinds belonging to this family in which the jaws remain 

 always in the condition which is only temporary in the young of 

 the gar-pike. These are called half-beaks, and some of them 

 live in fresh water and bring forth their young alive. 



The saury pike occurs annually on the Cornish coast, and 

 along the south and east coast of Britain is taken but not in 

 abundance. Its eggs have filaments for attachment like those 

 of the gar-pike, but its spawning on British shores has not yet 

 been described. 



