38 



alimentary canal in the adult. Most of them have spines in 

 some of the fins. 



Family Esocidae. 



Needle Fishes. 

 Body compressed and oblong, a ridge along the side of belly; 

 head scaly. Many teeth ; dorsal far back; no spinous fins ; 

 intestinal canal simple ; air bladder large. Marine fishes of 

 which the following species is anadromous. 



Tylosurus marinus ( Walb.). 

 Bill or Garfish ; Green Pike. 

 Body long ; jaws slender. Color greenish, silvery on the 

 sides ; bones and scales green. Said to grow to a length of 

 four feet. Scales 300. 



Coastwise along the Atlantic shores. Abbott says they are 

 often found in the Delaware and Raritan canal basins, when the 

 water is drawn off in winter. I caught one specimen only of this 

 fish some years ago in a brackish creek at Secaucus, N. J. 



Family Gasterosteidae. 



Stickleback. 

 Small fishes with elongate compressed bodies ; tail slender ; 

 skin naked or with bony plates ; head large, teeth villiform, in 

 jaws only. The whole appearance mackerel-like. Dorsal, 

 ventrals and anals with large spines, which in the dorsal are 

 isolated excepting the last. The greater number of species are 

 nest builders, the male building the nest and defending the 

 young against all intruders. They are mostly brackish water 

 fishes of the colder waters and are considered to be very 

 destructive to the spawn of other fishes. 



Pygosteus pungitius {L.Y. 

 Nine- or Ten-spined Stickleback. 

 Blackish or olive, blotched, barred or spotted, silvery be- 

 neath ; tail keeled. Length 2 to iy 2 inches. D. IX-I, 9, 

 A I, 8. 



North-east America. This species appears to run upstream 

 further than the others. In the aquarium it often attacks 

 fish and tears their fins into shreds. During the breeding sea- 

 son, the male becomes of a rosy hue beneath. It is a hardy 



