DESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICAN PIKES 



Ohio muskellunge . . 

 Chautauqua mus- 

 kellunge 



Great northern pike. 

 Plain muskellunge. , 

 Plain lunge 



Esox masquinongy 

 Ohiensis 



Esox masquinongy 

 immaculatus — 



COMMON NAME SCIENTIFIC NAME RANGE 



Muskellunge Esox masquinongy Native of all the 



'Lunge masquinongy . . . Great Lakes, upp>er 



St. Lawrence River, 

 and" tributary 

 streams; also cer- 

 tain northern lakes. 



Chautauqua Lake 

 chiefly, but has 

 been reported from 

 certain portions of 

 the Ohio Valley. 



Only found in Eagle 

 Lake, Wis., and 

 other small lakes in 

 the northern part of 

 that state and also 

 in Northern Minne- 

 sota. 



The first three fish mentioned deserve the name 

 "pickerel," a cognomen which, by the way, should 

 never be applied to any other pike. Bear in mind 

 that the pickerel is not a small great pike. It will 

 remain a pickerel all the days of its aqueous existence. 

 The fisherman can easily tell whether or not a given 

 specimen is a pickerel or an immature great pike. If 

 both cheeks and gill-covers are covered with scales, 

 it is the former. Hold that one fact in mind and you 

 will never be confused. A great pike has cheeks 

 covered with scales, while the lower half of gill-covers 

 are bare. Always a pickerel has both "squamated," 

 that is, scaled all over. 



To describe the three pickerels is hardly necessary, 

 the Mississippi Valley fish not being found in the 

 eastern portion of the country, while the two eastern 

 pickerels are not found in the West. The western 

 pickerel is almost a duplicate of the banded pickerel— 



35 



