474 TUBE-BLADDERED GROUP. 



all the Russian rivers, with the exception of those of the Crimea and Trans- 

 caucasia, and is likewise found in Siberia. In Lapland it extends even beyond 

 the limits of the birch, while to the south it is common in the Venetian lagoons. 

 Growing very rapidly, the pike not uncommonly attains a length of 45 or 46 

 inches, with a weight of 35 or 36 lbs. ; and although fishes of much larger 

 dimensions are on record, the accounts of these must be received with great 

 caution. It is pretty well ascertained that fish of 45 inches are not commonly 

 more than about fifteen years old, and the stories of examples living for a century, 

 or even more, appear to be legendary. Pike are among the most predaceous and 

 greedy of all fresh-water fish, nothing coming amiss to their voracious appetites, 

 since not only will they devour worms, leeches, frogs, trout, carp, and other fishes, 

 but they pull under the young, and often even the adults, of all kinds of water- 

 birds, and have no objection to an occasional water-vole. Their habit of lying 

 like a log in the water (from which trait they probably derive their name), as well 

 as the sudden rush they make after their prey, are well known to all : and the 

 damage these fish do to trout-streams is almost incredible. Pike are also great 

 devourers of the smaller members of their own kind. Frequenting alike ponds, lakes, 

 and rivers, pike in Ireland spawn as early as February, but in England a month 

 or two later, while in some parts of the Continent the season lasts till May. Males, 

 which are inferior in size to their consorts, are said to be more numerous than the 

 latter ; and it is not uncommon for a female in spawning-time to be attended by 

 three or four members of the opposite sex, who crowd around her as she lies quiet 

 to deposit her eggs. 



The Afeicax Beaked Fish, — Family Mormyrid^e. 



The very remarkable fish (Mormyrus iietersi) shown in the upper figure of 

 the illustration on p. 475, is the best known African representative of a large 

 genus of fresh-water fishes confined to Africa, and constituting not only a family 

 but likewise a distinct section, to which Professor Cope applies the name of 

 Scyphophori. Having the narrow parietal bones of the skull distinct both from 

 one another and from the supraoccipital, these fishes are especially distinguished 

 by having each of the pterotics (which lie on each side of the parietals) large, 

 funnel-shaped, and enclosing a cavity exjmnding externally, and covered by a 

 lid-like plate of bone. The anterior vertebras are simple and unmodified; and 

 a subopercular bone is present in the gill-cover. Externally both the body 

 and tail are covered with scales, but the head is naked, and the muzzle has no 

 barbels. In the upper jaw the middle portion is formed by the united premaxillee, 

 and the sides by the maxillae ; the gill-opening is reduced to a small slit ; there 

 are no false gills ; and the air-bladder is simple. A fatty fin is wanting ; and 

 whereas in the typical genus all the other fins are well developed, in the allied 

 Gymnarchus (which is likewise exclusively African, and is sometimes regarded as 

 the representative of a distinct family), the caudal, anal, and pelvic fins are want- 

 ing, the tail tapering to a point, instead of terminating in a deeply forked fin. 

 The beaked fishes are divided into groups according to the length of the dorsal 

 fin and the form of the muzzle, the figured species belonging to a group in which 



