ESOCIN^, OR PIKES. 295 



of this sub-family are the fishes represented by the Esox 

 belone of Linnseus, — a rank which they derive from their 

 exact analogy to the Xiphiance, or sword-fish, in the cor- 

 responding circle of the acanthopterygious order ; and 

 therefore_, correctly speaking, the family name of Esox 

 should have been retained to this most typical group. 

 It is one of the beauties of the system of representation, 

 that the typical forms of an extensive circle, in cases of 

 this sort_, may always be determined by the simple and sure 

 method which nature has herself taken of pointing out 

 her own analogies. The name of Esox, however, being, 

 by long usage, so universally affixed to the freshwater 

 pikes, we shall so retain it, distinguishing the gar-fish 

 by that of Ramphistoma, long ago given them by Rafi- 

 nesque. Following these three genera we shall place 

 those of Stomia and Chauliodes, whose obtuse mouth we 

 have been in some measure prepared for by Esox. In 

 regard to the fifth or last type, much uncertainty pre- 

 vails : the genus Diplopterus of Mr. Gray may possibly 

 be the true one; and yet the great elongation of the jaws 

 in Lepisosteus, and its depressed muzzle, seems to bring 

 it much nearer to the gar-fish and the pikes than to any 

 others of this order. Cuvier, indeed, places it at the 

 end of the soft-rayed families, intermediate between 

 Osteoglossum and Polypterus, but without venturing to 

 intimate any supposed affinity with either; and it is plain 

 that he places these three together, not as having any 

 real connection, but as being in some measure related 

 to the groups that precede them. If such an accom- 

 plished ichthyologist, with all the materials of the 

 French Museum at his command, could not determine 

 the natural station of this singular genus, we may well be 

 pardoned for being equally unsuccessful. 



(249.) These extraordinary creatures, the flying fish, 

 forming the genus Exocetus Linn., will first be noticed, 

 both as to their habits and their classification. By 

 Xiinnseus they were placed much nearer to the herrings 

 than they have been by Cuvier, who arranges them in a 



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