APPENDIX 



of the gill-covers is extended down on the portion 

 joining the cheel<, as never occurs in the true great 

 pike. (Study the illustrations taken from the Journal 

 of Heredity.) In other words, the squamation of the 

 hybrid partakes both of the nature of the great pike 

 and pickerel. The supposed wild hybrids have ex- 

 actly the same squamation. Therefore it seems al- 

 most safe to conclude that if the angler should be so 

 fortunate as to capture a fish with the peculiar scala- 

 tion given in the illustration, he would be justified in 

 concluding that he had a hybrid pickerel. It would 

 be exceedingly interesting to know if the hybrid would 

 reproduce, a matter I deem exceedingly doubtful, for 

 the chances are it would prove a "mule" (infertile). 

 If it did reproduce, would its progeny partake of the 

 characteristics of the hybrid, or would it "throw 

 back" to either the pickerel or great pike form? There 

 seems to be no answer. (A friend of mine who is a 

 trout breeder has carefully selected albino trout, 

 strong and vigorous fish, hoping to reproduce them, 

 but he insists that they are infertile, a matter which 

 I can but doubt until further evidence in support of 

 his claim be brought.) 



In coloration the hybrid, which the reader under- 

 stands is an immature fish, resembles the immature 

 great pike much more closely than it does the imma- 

 ture pickerel, the diagonal light bars with dark areas 

 between them being distinct in the first two and to- 

 tally lacking in the last, the markings being those of 

 the so-called "chain pickerel." If these markings are 

 constant, the fisherman should have little difficulty 

 in differentiating between the great pike minnow and 

 the pickerel minnow, though he might easily be con- 

 fused if given a great pike, and hybrid. The author, 

 upon whose findings I arn basing this paper, holds 

 that the chances are in favor of the mature hybrid 

 resembling quite closely the mature great pike, the 

 resemblance being so striking in the immature speci- 

 men. One examining the illustrations accompanying 



187 



