. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. JIIE AMERllAN ' i'lKE. -23 a-lialf paii-s of gills, but no gill uiioii the operculum. There is a spiracle on each side of the parietal hone, covered by a bony plate. The branchiostegal rays are replaced by a single plate of bone. The stomach has no blind sac, there is one pancreatic appendage, and tlie intestine terminates in a .spiral valve. There are fifty-one vertebra; in the abdomen and sixteen in the tail. From Old Calabar there comes a remarkable fish closely allied to the Polypterus, which is named Calamoichthys calabaricus. It
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. JIIE AMERllAN ' i'lKE. -23 a-lialf paii-s of gills, but no gill uiioii the operculum. There is a spiracle on each side of the parietal hone, covered by a bony plate. The branchiostegal rays are replaced by a single plate of bone. The stomach has no blind sac, there is one pancreatic appendage, and tlie intestine terminates in a .spiral valve. There are fifty-one vertebra; in the abdomen and sixteen in the tail. From Old Calabar there comes a remarkable fish closely allied to the Polypterus, which is named Calamoichthys calabaricus. It has a much more elongated form ; the dorsal and ventral sur- faces are parallel. There are about a hundred vertebrae in the abdomen and ten in the tail. The dorsal fin is represented by from nine to eleven fiulets ; the ventral fiu is absent, and the small anal fin is placed at the hinder extremity of the body, immediately below the tail. FAMILY —THE AMERICAN BONY PIKE.* The Bony Pike, or Garfish, as it is often called, is one of the most distinctive of American types of fish-life. It is met with in the rivers and lakes of the basin of the St. Lawrence, in various parts of the United States, and in Mexico, and occui's in Cuba. American authors have distinguished more than twenty different species, which have been referred to several genera. Dr. Giinther reduces these species to three—the Lepiclosteus viridis, the Lepidosteus platystomus, and Lepidosteus osseus. These fishes swim with the greatest rapidity, darting through the lakes and rivers, and are able to pass through the most rapid currents, not excepting the rapids of Niagara. Their bodies are more flexible than those of ordinary fishes. Agassiz notices that the liead moves freely on the neck, and may be indifierently wagged from side to side, or moved upward or down, movements which are impossible in other fishes. This mobility results from the remarkable mode of union of the vertebra; with «^ach
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