PIKE. 
473 
The Umbres,— Family UmbridjE. 
A small fish from Austria-Hungary known as the umbre (Umbra Jcrameri), 
together with a second ( Ulimi), locally distributed in the fresh waters of the 
United States, indicate a family distinguished from the Cyprinodontidce by the 
upper jaw-margin being formed in front by the premaxillary bones and by 
the maxillary bones at the sides; the base of the skull being of simple structure 
in both families. Like the cyprinodonts, the umbres have the head and body 
scaled, and no barbels to the mouth. There is no fatty fin, and the dorsal is 
opposite the pel vies, or a little behind them, while the anal is short, and the 
caudal rounded. The stomach merely forms an expansion of the intestine; 
the air-bladder is simple; and the false gills are hidden and glandular. The 
European species, which is known as the hunds-fisch in Germany, dwells in 
marshes and muddy pools, where it buries itself in the mud at the bottom. As in 
most cyprinodonts, the males are smaller and more slender than the females, scarcely 
reaching a couple of inches in length, whereas the latter grow to 3 or 34 inches. 
The Pike,— Family ESOCIDJE. 
Such a familiar fish as the pike (Esox lucius ) scarcely requires much in the 
way of description, but it is an important one as representing, with other members 
of the same genus, a family by itself. Agreeing with the umbres in the structure 
COMMON PIKE. 
of the jaws, pike may be distinguished externally by the absence of scales on the 
head, and internally by the more complex structure of the base of the skull. The 
body is covered with cycloid scales; there are neither barbels nor a fatty fin; 
and the dorsal is situated in the caudal region of the vertebral column, in the 
position of the fatty fin of the salmon tribe. The stomach has no blind appendage, 
the false gills are glandular and concealed, and the gill-opening is unusually wide. 
In the upper jaw sickle-shaped teeth are borne by the premaxillae, palatines, and 
vomer, the maxillae being toothless, while the lower teeth are of variable shape. 
The long narrow body terminates in a forked caudal fin; and the long, broad, and 
depressed snout has the lower jaw exceeding the upper in length. Confined to 
the fresh waters of the temperate regions of the three northern continents, pike 
may be considered a western rather than an eastern type, seeing that whereas the 
common species has a range equivalent to that of the family, the whole of the 
other six species are confined to the United States. In Europe the pike inhabits 
