SHOVEL-NOSED STURGEON. 769 



Scaphirhynchus platyrhynchus, Girakd (1858), U. S. Pao. E. R. Surv., x, 357, and of most 



authors. 

 Soaphirkynchopa platyrhynchus, Jordon (1878), Man. Vert. E. U. S., 2d. Ed., 346. 

 Adpenaer cataphractua, Gray (1834), Proc. Zaol. Soo. London, VJ2. 

 SoapkirliyncJtus cataphractua, Qunther (1870), Cat. Fishes, Brit. Mas., yiii, 345. 

 Scaphirhynchus rafinesquii, Heckel (1835), Ann. Wiener Mnsenm, i, 71. 



Description. — Body rather longhand slender, tapering anteriorly into a depressed spade- 

 shaped snout, and posteriorly into the long and slender tail, which is ranch depressed, 

 considerably broader than deep, and from the dorsal fio backward completely encased 

 in a coat of mail formed by the coalescence of the lateral series of scutes ; shields all 

 somewhat obcordate, the spine quite posterior and nearly horizontal ; the edges of the 

 scutes rough ; lateral scutes higher than long ; anal fin almost entirely behind dorsal ; 

 dorsal rays about 25 in number , dorsal series of shii'lds of about 16 ecufes ; lateral series 

 43 ; ventral series 11 ; color plain brownish. Length, one to eight feet {Kirtland). 



Habitat, Ohio Valley to the Upper Missouri, and southwest to the Rio Grande ; not 

 recorded from the Great Lakes. 



Diagnosis. — This species may be known at once from the other Stur- 

 geons by the flattened tail, the surface of whi-ch is entirely bony. 



Habits. — This fish is common in the Ohio River, and some of its larger 

 tributaries. It if! taken in seines in considerable numbers, and is used 

 for food, though it does not seem to be highly valued. Nothing dis- 

 tinctive is on record of its habits which are probably essentially like 

 those of the Lake Sturgeon. 



ORDER 4. G-INGLYMODI. THE RHOMBOGANOIDS. 



Parietals in contact ; pterotio simple; sympleotio present; mandible with ooronoid, 

 opercular, angalar articular, and dentary bones ; basis of craninm simple ; third 

 superior pharyngeal bone small, lying on fourth ; npper basihyal wanting ; maxillary 

 subdivided; a priBooraooid arch; vetrebrss opisthoccBliao ; pectoral flns with meso- 

 pteryginm and five other basal elements; skeleton generally ossified ; precoracoid carti- 

 laginous ; one axial hyoid, and three basal br<jnohihyals ; tail heteroceroal ; dorsal 

 short, inserted far back; ventrals abdominal; pectorals inserted low; scales rhombic, 

 enamelled ; air blad,der cellular, partly functional. (Sigglumos, hinge ; odous, tooth.) 



This order includes but one family, the Gar Pikes or Lepidosteidw. 



FAMILY IV. LEPIDOSTEID^. THE GAR PIKES. 



Body elongate, covered with hard diamond-shaped enamelled scales, arranged in re- 

 gular oblique series; head more or less elongate, the jaws depressed and produced, the 

 upper jaws projecting somewhat beyond the lower ; month with the cleft rather narrow 

 but very long; most of the margin of upper jaw formed by premaxillaries ; each jaw 

 with one or two series of very stroiig teeth, set vertically, between these are numerous 

 smaller teeth ; middle portion of each jaw with bands of fine raap-Iike teeth, which 

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