GAR, GARFISH, or one of two sorts of fish, both long and slender, with a prolonged spear-like Snout filled with teeth, and hence bearing such local names as abill-fish,* aneedle-fish,D Thony-pike,'> etc.; and ((green bone,'" because of the greenish tinge on the bones. The group originally called was that of the family Beloniche (or Esocidce), allied to the sauries and flying-fish, the type of which is the common European Belone belone. This is a swift, voracious fish which darts along the surface picking up little fishes, and especially playing havoc in shoals of young mackerel. It is usually about two feet in length, is often brought to the London market, and forms a wholesome dish, in flavor somewhat like mack erel. The young forms have at first jaws of a normal size, but in growth the lower outstrips the upper. Very similar, but larger, are the gars, Very or oneedle-fish* of American tropical waters, which offer good sport by their speed and strength, but are hated by practical fishermen whose nets they fre quently destroy or damage by their effort to get at imprisoned prey. There are several species, all of the genus Tylosurus.
Both these kinds, as well as their Oriental representatives, are often called "gar-pikes° from their pike-like form and voracity; but in the United States this term is suitably reserved for a very different kind of gar, not known in the Old World, and a relic of the ganoid tribe prevalent in the palwozoic seas. This gar-pike represents the family Lepidosteida (see Ictl Tuvotocv), and has a long altpost cylindrical body encased in an armor of white, bony, enam eled rhomboid plates, which are imbricated in oblique rows running downward and backward.
The jaws are long, narrow and furnished with sharp teeth, each of which fits into a depression in the opposite jaw; and are covered with a granulated shagrecn-like integument. They have the air-bladder subdivided and used in respiration; no spiracle; strong fins, a heterocer cal tail; swim well, and prey upon small fishes. Their own flesh is not edible and they interfere with fishing, and therefore are destroyed freely. They inhabit the rivers and lakes of North America, where the commonest species is the long-nosed gar (Lepidosteus osseus). Another, more southerly, is the short-nosed gar (L. pla tystomus); and a great and powerful sub tropical species (L. reaching 8 or 10 feet in length, and called omanjuari• in the West Indies, is known as °alligator-gar') in the lower Mississippi district. Another species oc curs on the west coast of Central America; and another in the rivers of China.
All these gar-pikes frequent shallow, reedy or grassy places, basking in the sun like the pike, and devouring living prey with great voracity. The manner of seizing prey differs from that usually observed in fishes, and re sembles that of reptiles; instead of taking their food at once with open mouth and swallowing it immediately, they approach it slyly and side ways, and then, suddenly seizing the fish or other animal, hold it until by a series of move ments it is placed in a proper position for being swallowed, in the manner of alligators and lizards; the ball of food is also seen to distend the body as it passes downward, as in snakes.