THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 357 



arranged nearly in rows. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins have many rounded, dark 

 spots. Adults without dark bar below eye. Naked part of opercle bounded by a 

 whitish streak. In the young the sides are covered with oblique yellowish bars, 

 which afterward break up into the pale spots of the adult. 



Pike is the best known name for this species, though the misnomer " Pickerel " 

 is rather extensively used. The origin of Pike is involved in uncertainty ; some 

 trace it to the resemblance in shape of the snout to the pike or spear, while others 

 believe it to refer to the darting motion of the fish when speeding through the 

 water. The name Pickerel is used in Vermont and around Lake George, N. Y. 

 " Frank Forrester " (Herbert) styles it the Great Northern Pickerel. The name 

 Jack is applied in Great Britain to young Pike. BrocJiet is the French name, Hecht 

 the German and Luccio the Italian designation of the species. In Prof. Cope's 

 paper in earlier reports of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission the names Lake Pike 

 and Grass Pike are used for the fish. 



COMMON PIKE. 



Distribution. In the north temperate and arctic regions of North America, 

 Europe and Asia the Pike is equally common. In North America it extends from 

 Pennsylvania to high northern latitudes. In Alaska Townsend and others found it 

 in abundance in the Yukon. From Greenland and the islands of the Arctic Ocean 

 the Pike appears to be absent. The identity of our American Pike with the 

 common one of Europe was recognized by Cuvier and Richardson more than half a 

 century ago; the former compared specimens from Lake Huron with European 

 examples, and Richardson with the English Pike, and both were unable to find 

 specific differences between the two. 



The Pike is said to be common in Lake Champlain and in all its larger tribu- 

 taries. In the Lake Ontario region the U. S. Fish Commission collectors secured it 

 at the following places : Mud Creek, Cape Vincent, N. Y., June 25, 1894, Chaumont 

 River, July 10, outlet Long Pond, 4 miles west of Charlotte, N. Y., August 17. 



Dr. Meek found the species in Cayuga Lake, where, he says, he was unable to 

 find any other fish of the genus except the Pickerel. James Annin, Jr., obtained 



