ESOX — PIKES 207 



of the fresh-water fishes of Canada, we infer that it is not to 

 be found north of the Great Lakes. 



In its feeding structures, this little species is a reduced copy 

 of the destructive and voracious common pike, and its food, as 

 illustrated by eighteen specimens, seems to be purely animal. 

 Two of these had eaten frog tadpoles, and eight had taken fishes, 

 one of which was a cyprinoid minnow, one a sunfish, and the 

 other a common top-minnow (Gambusia) of the southern part 

 of the state. The remaining food was mostly composed of the 

 larger aquatic insects. Amphipod and isopod crustaceans have 

 been found in the stomachs of other specimens, taken from 

 Quiver Lake, near Havana. 



The species apparently spawns earfy, and ripe individuals 

 of both sexes have been seen by us in March. 



ESOX LUCIUS Linnaeus 

 common pike; pickerel 



(Map LXII) 



Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, 314. 



G., VI, 228 & 229 (estor and depraudus); J. & G., 353; M. V., 89; J. & E., I, 628 



(Lucius); N., 43 (lucius var. estor, and ? boreus); J., 53; F., 71; F. F., II. 7, 



435: L., 21 (Lucius). 



Length 3 feet; elongate and compressed; depth 5 to 7; greatest width 

 about % greatest depth; depth caudal peduncle 1.7 to 2.2 in its length. 

 Color of back and sides bluish or gnenish gray with more or less of purplish 

 luster; yellowish below and white on belly; sides with ii regular rows of small 

 roundish spots of yellowish or gold; single scales of side each with a broad 

 V-shaped golden spot; top of head plain dark olive-green; cheeks and opercles 

 bluish gray or heliotrope with pale greenish spots; iris light drab below with 

 golden margin, brassy yellow above pupil and forward; all fins wax-yellow 

 in the rays; dorsal with 3 to 5 rows of roundish black spots equal in length to 

 the width of three membranes; caudal and anal similarly marked; ventrals 

 with faint traces of spots; pectorals plain. Head 2.9 to 3.6 (usually less than 

 3.4) ; width of head about 3; interorbital 4.3 to 6.2; eye 5.8 to 9.5, midway of 

 head; nose 1.9 to 2.4; mouth very large, maxillary past front of orbit, 2 to 2.2 

 in head. Dorsal rays 15 or 16; anal 14 or 15; ventrals half waj r to front of 

 anal; pectorals % to ventrals, 2.2 to 2.6 in head in adults. Scales 122 to 

 125: cheeks fully scaled; lower half of opercles naked; lateral line irregular, 

 supplementary lateral pores in short and broken series above and below it, 

 especially on caudal peduncle. 



This noble fish, completely and almost ideally equipped for 

 the predatory life, has now nearly disappeared from the larger 

 and muddier streams of Illinois, but is still found in abundance 

 in the headwaters of the Kankakee and in the small glacial lakes 



