The Possibility of Hybrids Between 

 Great Pike and Pickerel 



[Note. — I am indebted to Forest and Stream, of New York, 

 for the privilege of republishing here this chapter, which originally 

 appeared in that well-known outdoor periodical. Also I am in- 

 debted to the Journal of Heredity for the facts, as well as the 

 cut, with which it is illustrated. — Author.] 



Every angler who has given any thought to the 

 matter cannot fail to be impressed with the great 

 likeness between the pickerel and the great pike. 

 For, as has been pointed out in the foregoing pages, 

 were it not for the squamation of the cheeks and gill- 

 covers, not always could an observer be certain of 

 any given specimen. The reader has learned that 

 color and form are not sufficiently constant to serve 

 as a certain identification. This being true, the pos- 

 sibility of a cross or hybrid has undoubtedly sug- 

 gested itself to the thoughtful mind of the angler. It 

 is a matter of record that supposed crosses have been 

 discovered in nature in one or more characters, fish 

 showing a condition intermediate between great pikes 

 and pickerels. Of course when those specimens have 

 been taken, the question has arisen whether or not 

 such fish are mere "sports," a mutation, or the actual 

 result of cross-fertilization. Undoubtedly few crosses, 

 comparatively speaking, occur in nature, for nature is 

 more careful in such things than is man. 



When this paper appeared in Forest and Stream it 

 brought the writer any number of letters and criti- 

 cisms, favorable and otherwise, some anglers main- 

 taining that a cross was an utter impossibility, while 

 others had "caught lots of them." It is difficult to 

 say which attitude of mind is the most reprehensible. 



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