GARPIKE. 429 
while the air-bladder is cellular, lung-like. Fossil species oc- 
cur with those of Amia in the tertiary rocks of the West. 
Lepidosteus osseus Agassiz, the bony gar, with a long, slender 
snout, is sometimes five feet long; ZL. platystomus Rafin. 
has a short nose, while the alligator gar, L. spatula Lacé- 
pede, has a short and wide snout, and grows to a larger size 
(nearly three metres) than the other species, and inhabits 
the Mississippi Valley. The garpikes are carnivorous, very 
rapacious, and are said to destroy large numbers of food- 
fishes. 'They usually remain near the surface of the water, 
emitting bubbles of air and apparently taking in a fresh 
supply. Wilder has observed Amia inhaling air, and re- 
marks that ‘‘so far as the experiments go, it seems probable 
that, with both Amia and Lepidosteus, there occurs an inha- 
lation as well as exhalation of air at pretty regular intervals, 
the whole process resembling that of the Menobranchus and 
other salamanders, and the tadpoles, which, as the gills 
Fig. 395.—Garpike. From Tenney’s Zoology. 
shrink and the lungs increase, come more frequently to the 
surface for air.” Both of these fishes are very tenacious of 
life and withstand removal from water much better than 
bony fishes and sturgeons, on account of the lung-like nature 
of their air-bladder. Wilder shows that there is a series of 
forms, mostly Ganoids, from the Amia and Lepidosteus in 
which the pneumatic duct enters the throat on the dorsal 
side, up to Lepidosiren in which it enters the throat on the 
ventral side, like the air-tube or trachea of Amphibians and 
higher Vertebrates. 
The breeding habits and external changes in form of the 
garpikes have been described by Mr. A. Agassiz. The gars, 
which are nocturnal in their habits, appear on the shores of 
Lake Ontario,near Ogdensburg, in immense numbers between 
