THE PIKE FAMILY 



Florida. It is only found east of the Alleghany 

 Mountains, where it is known to every bushwhack- 

 ing fisher-boy of the farm lands. We recognize 

 it at once by its dark-green color and the many 

 black curving bars on its sides, which are sometimes 

 obscurely marked, by the black bar above the eye, 

 and the one from the gill-cover running through 

 the eye to the snout. 



Fishermen are apt to confuse some of the perch 

 family with that of the pikes, owing to the similar- 

 ity of common local names, in widely distributed 

 localities, for different species of fish. For instance, 

 the wall-eyed or glass-eyed pike is a perch, and as 

 such will be described in the chapter captioned 

 " The Perches." Again, the prevalent practice 

 in the west and in some sections of New Eng- 

 land of calling the pike, "the pickerel," and in 

 Canada the wall-eyed pike, "the dore," simply 

 renders confusion more confusing. 



We feel that it is good Samaritan fish work to 

 make plain to anglers the differentiation between 

 fishes taken on the rod ; and those who read the 

 above paragraphs with care should not err in 

 describing and properly classifying a pike which 

 they have proudly boated or grassed. 



Anglers who desire more specific information, 

 by which the different species of the pike family 

 5 



