PIKE. 
161 
are prominent in lines high on the side, running to meet each 
other along the middle of the back. The scales on the belly 
appear as if sunk in the skin, and separate from each other. 
The gill-covers extend considerably backward. Lateral line 
little perceptible at first, straight. Dorsal fin with eighteen 
rays, of which the fourth is the longest; anal also with eighteen, 
the first three or four very short; the colour of both yellowish, 
with strongly marked black rays; pectoral fins low, under the 
throat, round, yellow; ventrals abdominal, but much anterior 
to the anal, yellow with a white border. Caudal fin broad, 
forked, with eighteen rays, the main stem of each of which 
gives ofif branches only on one side, which is that, above and 
below, which is directed towards the middle of the fin. Colour 
of the top of the head and back dark brownish green, yellowish 
green on the sides, rvith scattered yellow spots; white below; 
a broad band from the front of each eye; and other bands 
from below pass forward, converging to the sides of the snout. 
A remarkable structure in the eye of this fish, discovered by 
Mr. Drummond, (Charlesworth’s Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. ii,) 
appears to shew a special power of regulating distances in sight, 
and in no British fish are the three bones of the ear (Otoliths) 
on each side so decidedly visible. 
VOL. IV, 
V 
