OARPIKES. 153 



ton is solid and bony. Tliese are the garpikes and mud- 

 fish. 



The garpikes (Fig. 197) have large montlis and large, 

 conical, sharp teeth, and tlie body is encased iti m enamelled 

 coat of mail. They are the terror of tlie Mississippi Eiver 

 and its branches, as they destroy all the smaller fish. The 

 largest species is the alligator gar {Lepidosteus ttpatula). 



Fig. 196. — Protopterus annectens, a Lung-flsh of Africa. One third natural 



size. 



which is sometimes nearly three yards (three metres) in 

 length, and sometimes weighing several hundred pounds. 

 So hard is its armor, that a blow with an axe cannot pene- 

 trate its back, the only vulnerable point being its throat or 

 the back of its head. It inhabits the lower Mississippi and 

 the stagnant bayous and sluggish streams entering it. The 



Fig. 197.— Garpike. 



spawn resembles that of the toad, forming long ropes sev- 

 eral inches in diameter, wliich are hung on old suags or 

 roots. The eggs are laid in December and January, the 

 young appearing in the spring, becoming fourteen inches 

 long by the end of August.* 



* See an interesting account of this remarkulile fish, liy G. P. Dun- 

 bar, in the American Naturalist for May, 1883. 



