LBPiDOSTBUxa;.: — cxni. 341 



FAMILY CXIII.— LEPIDOSTEIDiE. 



(The Gar Pikes.) 



Body elongated, smb - cylindrical, covered with hard, 

 enamelled, lozenge -shaped, ganoid plates; snout elon- 

 gated, spatulate,, or beak -like; upper jaw of several 

 pieces, longer than the lower, which is formed of as 

 many parts as in Reptiles; both jaws and palate armed 

 with bands of rasp -like teeth, and series of larger, 

 conical ones; fins with fulcra (elongated modified scales) 

 in front; dorsal and anal short and placed far back, 

 moderately high; vertebrae concavo-convex, with ball 

 and socket joints as in Reptiles; air bladder cellular, 

 like the lungs of Reptiles, connected with the pharynx; 

 , stomach not coecal but with numerous pyloric append- 

 ages ; intestine with rudimentary spiral valve ; no spir- 

 acles; branchiostegals three; pseudobranchiae present. 

 Fresh waters of N. A., from New England to the Rocky 

 Mountains^ S. to Central America and Cuba. Genera 

 two or three {Cylindrosteus seems to us to be rather a 

 sub-genus of JLepidosteus) ; species probably about five 

 although forty have been described; until some more 

 tangible distinctions are shown, we can admit but 

 three.* 



* In a recent work on these fishes, Frof. August Dumeril very laboriously 

 distinguishes the following "species'* among the specimens of Lapidoateas in 

 the Museum at Paris: 



L. osseus, CL.} (=> L. gaviaUs, Lac); ^' lov/laianensis, Dum. f=. I*, oxyv/rug, 

 Baf. = Sarchirus vittaUis, Kaf.); L. harlani, L. ayresi, L. stivLtMi, L. copei, L. 

 lamariS't L, clvntonii, L. troosWl^ L. piquoUanus, L. leauev/rU, L. eUsabeth, L. 

 tlwmpsoni. L. horatU, L. TnilberU, L. trecuJM, Dumeril; and L. liv/ronensiSt Blch, 

 Of Cylindrosteus, he finds O. plat/yatoimia (Baf.); O. productus (Cope); C. pla- 

 tyrliy^ichua (DeK.); C. agaaaizU, O. rajineaquei, 0. bartoM, C. caateVnaud/ii and 

 O. zadoclci. Dam. 



Most of these nominal species are based upon the most trifling individual 

 differences, and often the right side of a specimen Indicates one " species," and 

 the left another. A-s matters stjnd, we have no alternative but to reject them 

 all, and to wait for the time when systematic writers shall, be wiser or more 

 honest. 



