In life all are with more or less green tints or colors, which 
penetrate to the bones and even the flesh* When cooked, however, the 
flesh becomes whitish and is well flavored* When available gars are 
valuable food fishes* Their sides are brilliant shining silvery or silvery 
white or they may have a silvery lateral band frcm the head to the base 
of the tail fin. Most of the gars are furnished with a dorsal lappet 
over the iris, serving to protect them from brilliant sunlight* The 
development of the beak is variable, sometimes only the lower jaw in 
% 
young being prolonged, again the jaws may be subequal or they may even 
lateral mandibular flaps in the young* The tail rounded or truncate in 
the young bee canes lunated or forked in some forms. 
Gars swim at or near the surface offshore, in tidal currents, 
or in the open sea. In spite of their enormous jaws and terrible armament 
of needlelike teeth, gars can prey only on comparatively small fishes, since 
the gullet is too narrow to permit swallowing fish of any size. Silversides 
(Atherninidae), anchovies (Engraulidae), sardines (Clupeidae), young caesios 
and other small slender fishes seem to comprise the bulk of their food, at 
least around the reefs of the Sulu and Celebes Seas. If a half stick of 
dynamite is fired near a wharf in the Sulu Archipelago large numbers of 
silversides are always killed or stunned* At once several large gars will 
appear like magic frcm the stream, where their greem backs harmonize per¬ 
fectly with the color of the water, and in an incredible short time they 
will snap up all the floating silversides and other small disabled fishes. 
