85. PERCID.E STIZOSTEDIUM. 525 



269. ST1ZOSTEB5IUM Rafinesque. 







Pike Perches. 



(Liicioperca Cuvier: Cenlropomus Bleeker.) 

 (Stizostedion Rafinesque, Ichth. Oh. 1820, 23: type Perca salmonca Raf.) 



Body slender, elongate, fusiform. Head subconical, long. Cheeks 

 and opercles more or less scaly ; top of the head with some scales. 

 Mouth large, the jaws about equal; premaxillaries protractile, little 

 movable. Teeth in villiform bands, the jaws and palatines with long, 

 sharp canines. Gill-rakers slender, strong-, gill-membranes separate. 

 Preopercle serrated ; opercle with one or more spines, terminations of 

 radiating striae. Dorsal fins separate, the first with 12 to 15 spines; 

 anal spines 2, slender; ventral fins not close together. Scales small, 

 strongly ctenoid ; lateral line continuous. PseudobrancMae well devel- 

 oped. Pyloric coaca 3 to 7. Large carnivorous fishes of the fresh waters 

 of North America and Europe ; two strongly marked species on each 

 continent. (TJ!>, to prick; dreOtov, a little breast ; u the name means 

 pungent throat," according to Eafiuesque.) 



a. Pyloric coeca 3, subequal, all about as long as the stomach. (Slieostedium.) 



827. S. vitreum (Mitch.) Jordan & Copeland. Wall-eyed Pike ; Dory; Glass-eye; 

 Yellow Pike; Blue Pike ; Jack Salmon. 



Dark olive, finely mottled with brassy, the latter color forming indis- 

 tinct oblique lines : sides of head more or less vermiculated ; lower jaw 



ttJU f <> m.jU-j . 



flesh -colored:/! belly ancVlower fins pinkish; spinous dorsal with a large 



^- . 



ict-black blotch on the membrane of the last two or three spines, other- 



d 7 



wise nearly plain; second dorsal and caudal mottled olive and yellow- 

 ish; base of pectorals dusky without distinct black blotch. Body slen- 

 der, becoming compressed with age, the back more arched than in 8. ca- 

 naclcnsc. Dorsal spines high, more than half length of head; soft dorsal 

 nearly as long as spinonsdorsal. Tlead 3^ ; depth about 4i. Eye shorter 

 than snout, 4J-5 in head. D. XIII-I, 21 ; A. II, 12] Lat. 1. 9;). Pyloric 

 cceca 3, rather long. Great Lake region, Upper Mississippi, and some 

 Atlantic streams, north to the fur countries; an abundant and valued 

 food-fish, reaching a length of nearly 3 feet and a weight of 10 to 20 



pounds. 



(Perca vUrea Mitch. Sup. Amer. Month. Mag. ii, 247, 1818: Liicioperca amcricana 

 Cuv. & Val. ii, 122; Luciopcrca amcricana Giinther, i, 74; Jordan, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus, 

 x, 43: Perca salmonca Raf. Amer. Mouth. Mag. v, 354, 1818: Stisoale Jtium salmoutnm 



