SHORT-NOSED GAR PIKE. Ha 
the similarity of the branchial arches and by the presence of the Jateral fold in which 
the pectoral fins are formed; the way the tail is developed is very like that of the bony 
fishes. Among the ganoids, it appears, as well as in ordinary fishes, the dorsal cord is 
straight at first, then assumes a slight upward curve at the extremity, when finally 
there appears the beginning of a lobe underneath pointing toward the complete hetero 
cereal tail. All this is as in the bony fishes; but this is the permanent condition of 
the Gar Pike, while in the bony fishes the extremity of the dorsal cord becomes extinct. 
The mode of development of the pectoral lobe. (very large in this species) furnishes 
another resemblance. In the brain, and in the mode of formation of the gills, a likeness 
to the sharks is noticeable. The young Gar Pikes move very slowly, and seem to float 
quietly save an exceedingly rapid vibration of the pectorals and the tip of the tail. 
They do not swim about much, but attach themselves to fixed objects by an extraordinary 
horse-shoe:shaped ring of sucker-appendages about the mouth. These appendages 
remain even after the snout has become so extended that the ultimate shape is hinted 
at; and furthermore it is a remnant of this feature which forms the fleshy bulb at the 
end of the snout in the adult. The summing up of Mr. Agassiz’s investigations thus 
far is, that the young Gar Pike has many characteristics in common with the sharks and 
skates, but is not so different from the bony fishes as has been supposed.” 
None of our species, unless it be the Hel has been made the subject of so 
many useless nominal species as the Gar Pike. This work began with an 
unfortunate remark of Professor Agassiz (Am. Journ. Sci. and Arts, 1854, 
360), ‘ I have now in my own collection, not less than twenty-two well 
characterized species of this genus.” For the naming of these twenty- 
two and about as many more we are indebted to Professor August Dumeril, 
yet only three, or at most five or six of them all are really distinguishable. 
Sub-genus Cylindrosteus. Rafinesque. Snout moderate, about as long as the rest of 
the head. : 
8. LEPIDOSTEUS PLATYSTOMUS Rafinesque. 
Short-mosed Gar Pike. 
Lepisosteus platostomus, RAFINESQUE, Ich. Oh., 72.—KiRTLAND, Rept. Zvol. Ohio, and Bost. 
Journ. Nat. Hist., iv, 20. 
Lepidosteus platystomus, AGAssiz, Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts, 1854, 360.—GUNTHER, Cat. 
Fishes, vii, 329.—STORER, Synopsis, 466.—WILDER, Proc. Am. Ass, Adv. Sci., 1875, 
B. 151, and of anatomists generally. 
Cylindrosteus platystomus, AUGUST DUMERIL, Hist. Nat. des Poissons, 1870.—JoRDAN, Ind. 
Geol. Surv., 1874, 227; Bull. Buff. Soc., 1876, 96; Man. Vert., 308. 
Lepisosteus albus, RAFINESQUE, Ich. Oh., 73. 
Cylindrosteus albus, COPE, Proc. Phil. Acad. Sci., 1865, 86. 
Lepidosteus platyrhynchus, DEKAy, Fishes N. Y., 273, 1842. 
Cylindrosteus platyrhynchus, DUMERIL, op. cit. 
Lepidosteus grayi, AGASSIZ, Poissons Fossiles, ii, 2. 3. 
Lepidosteus ( Cylindrosteus) latirostris, GIRARD, Pac. R. R. Rept., x, 353. 
Cylindrosteus latirostris, COPE, 1. c. 
Lepidosteus (Cylindrosteus) oculatus, WINCHELL, Proc. Phil. Acad. Sci., 1864, 183. 
