The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . and other strange-looking genera,after violent storms, which have agitated the bottom ofthe sea, and cast these delicate fishes upon the beach. Inthe course of five years we never met with more than ESOCINiE. LEPISOSTEUS. ITS ANALOGIES. 305 two individuals lying dead upon the Isthmus of sub-genus Stomias is evidently of this type, but dif-fers from it in having the dorsal fin situated as in all theother pikes. Risso describes two species inhabiting theMediterranean, neither of which we had the good fort
The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . and other strange-looking genera,after violent storms, which have agitated the bottom ofthe sea, and cast these delicate fishes upon the beach. Inthe course of five years we never met with more than ESOCINiE. LEPISOSTEUS. ITS ANALOGIES. 305 two individuals lying dead upon the Isthmus of sub-genus Stomias is evidently of this type, but dif-fers from it in having the dorsal fin situated as in all theother pikes. Risso describes two species inhabiting theMediterranean, neither of which we had the good fortuneto meet with. (254.) The last genus which we bring within the con-fines of this family is Lepisosteus* Lac. {fig. 67.) There. can hardly be any doubt that this remarkable fish belongsto the pikes, although Cuvier, with singular infelicity ofarrangement, places it immediately after only question seems to be as to its more immediateallies, and the rank we should assign to it. In its form,and in the disposition of its fins, it immediately remindsus of the gar-fish; but then the body, which is nearly cy-lindrical, is entirely covered with diamond-shaped scalesas hard as stone : the edges, or outer rays, of all the finsare defended with spine-like scales, quite analogous to thespined fins of the Sihiridce, while the muzzle, althoughlong, is broad and depressed: both jaws are internallycovered with numerous rasp-like teeth, with a row oflarger ones intermixed, and placed at their edges. Thereis no gar-fish yet discovered having any thing like thisstructure, and we therefore view Lepisosteus as a pri-mary rather than as a secondary type among the shortly describes several specie
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubj, booksubjectfishes, booksubjectreptiles
