262 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THE PHARYNGEAL TEETH OF FISHES. 

 By Colonel C. E. Shepherd (Indian Army). 



(Continued from vol. xvii. p. 389.) 



Amiidje. 



Amia calva (the Bowfin), found in the rivers and lakes of 

 North America. This fish is one of those that makes a rude 

 nest amidst the roots of swamp vegetation, in which its eggs are 

 deposited, and over which the male fish keeps guard. It has 

 fourteen short upstanding gill-rakers on the first cerato-hypo- 

 branchial arch, in length the longest is about half the depth of 

 the gill-lamina below it. There is a set of similar gill-rakers on 

 the inner side of this branchial arch. There are three similar 

 gill-rakers on the first epibranchial, with two rudimentary ones 

 at the top. The gill-rakers on the cerato-hypobranchial arch 

 decrease in size till they become very small at the end near the 

 tongue. The other branchial arches all carry a double row of 

 similar but smaller gill-rakers, and all the gill-rakers bear minute 

 teeth. For the upper phalangeal teeth there are two very small 

 points at the top of the second epibranchial which carry defined 

 teeth and below these there is a little roughness on the surface 

 of the epibranchial. The third and fourth epibranchials support 

 a triangular shield with the apex upwards, of cardiform 

 teeth. The lower pharyngeal teeth are set in two small 

 elongated triangles. 



Lepidosteidje. 



Lepidosteus osseus. A freshwater fish of North America, 

 colloquially known as the " Long-nosed Gar Pike," a voracious 

 fish preying largely on smaller fishes. It has eleven flat tubercle 

 gill-rakers on the first cerato-hypobranchial with six on its 

 epibranchial ; and the same kind on the outer sides with smaller 

 and more numerous ones on the inner Bides of the second and 

 third arches. The inner side of the first and the outer side of 



