NOTICE OF THE REPORTED CAPTURE OF THE COMMON 
GAR-PIKE (Belone vulgaris) IN THE RIVER TAME. 
In the month of April last, I received from Mr. Richard Bird, Surgeon, of 
Tamworth, a fine specimen of the common Gar-pike, said, by the man from whom 
he obtained it, to have been just caught in the River Tame, about two miles 
below Tamworth. That a sea-fish not mentioned, by any Ichthyologist with 
whose writings I am acquainted, as ever frequenting fresh water, should have 
ascended an inland river, to the distance of about one hundred and fifty miles 
from its termination in the ocean, appeared to me a somewhat extraordinary fact: 
and I should have been induced very strongly to suspect the correctness of the 
statement made to Mr. Bird, had not that gentleman, who is a very accurate and 
cautious observer, assured me that the fish exhibited the peculiar silvery lustre, 
and all the other characters of freshness, which indicated that life could not have 
been, many hours, extinct. I have, this day, seen Mr. Bird’s informant; and 
questioned him very closely on the subject. He states that he took the fish, 
given to Mr. Bird, and another, considerably larger, of the same species, with a 
net, in the river Tame, just below Hopwas bridge; that it is the only instance of 
the capture of such fish in fresh water, which has fallen under his observation ; 
but that an old fisherman, of Tamworth, recollects having taken a Gar-pike, about 
twenty years ago, in the river Tame, near Hopwas. 
I shall feel much obliged by the communication, through the medium of The 
Naturalist , of any fact calculated to throw light upon this obscure and, in my 
opinion, still somewhat doubtful statement. That such a fish as the Gar-pike, 
which, however agile and vivacious, is not known to possess the saltatorial powers 
of the Salmon, should have made its way over the numerous weirs existing on the 
course of the Tame and Trent between Hopwas and the point of conflux of the 
latter with the Humber, it is difficult to conceive. A few weeks previously to 
the date of this reported capture, the Trent and its tributary streams had, I may, 
however, observe, been swollen to an unwonted height by the rapidly-dissolving 
snows, and profuse rains, of the early spring. 
I shall conclude my brief notice with a slight outline of the generic and spe¬ 
cific characters of this curious'fish, and an exposition of the site which it occupies 
in the modern systems of Ichthyology. 
The Gar-pike, associated, in the System of Linneus, with the common pike, 
under the title of Esox belone , has, of late, been separated from Esox , and taken 
as the type of a new genus, named Belone , from Bikovn, the Greek designation of 
the gar-pike. The following are the generic characters of Belone ; as traced by 
Fleming and Yarrell. Muzzle attenuated and greatly prolonged. Intermaxillary 
bones forming the entire margin of the upper jaw. Both jaws furnished with 
minute teeth; none, on the vomer, palatine bones, or tongue. Along each side 
