206 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



ESOX VERMICULATUS Le Sueur 

 (little pickerel; grass pike) 



Le Sueur, 1846, in Cuv. & Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., XVIII, 333. 



G., VI, 230 (cypho); J. & G., 352 (salmoneus); M. V., 88; J. & E., I. 627 (Lucius); 

 N., 43 (salmoneus, cypho, and umbrosus); J., 53 ("salmoneus, cypho, and 

 ravenelli?); F . 71 (Lucius); F. F., II. 7, 435; L., 21 (Lucius). 



Length 12 inches; body elongate, compressed, caudal peduncle slen- 

 der; depth 5 to 7 (5.2 to 6. 7) in length; greatest width of body about f 

 its greatest depth; depth caudal peduncle 2 to 2.6 in its length. Color 

 typically grassy to grayish green, with darker streaks, bars, and reticu- 

 lations, the lighter colored interspaces worm-track-like (hence vermicu- 

 latus) ; color variable, sometimes nearly plain ; centers of scales (sides) 

 brassy, blue, or green; a yellowish streak along middle of back; belly 

 white; head dark olive with light patches; a dark slaty blue streak 

 below eye; opercles grassy green; a dusky streak from eye across cheek 

 and opercle; pupil dull bluish black; iris with narrow inner ring of burnt 

 golden, rest brownish to blue and purplish; caudal mottled near base; 

 other fins dusky in the rays, otherwise plain. Head 3 to 3.4 (usually 

 greater than 3.2); width of head 2.8 to 3.2; interorbital concave, 5 to 

 6.2; eye 5.5 to 6.8, midway of head; nose long, duck-bill-like, shorter 

 than in the next species, 2 .4 to 2 . 7 in head; mouth large, maxillary past 

 front of orbit, 2 to 2.4 in head. Dorsal rays 12; anal 12; caudal well 

 forked; ventrals less than half to vent; pectorals short, 2.8 to 3.3 in 

 head. Scales 103 to 108; cheeks and opercles fully scaled; no supple- 

 mentary lateral line. 



This little pike, never over 12 inches in length, but frequently 

 mistaken for the young of a larger species, is distributed throughout 

 Illinois, most abundantly, however, according to our experience, in 

 the southern part of the state, where its frequency coefficient rises to 

 1 . 73 as compared with . 69 for central Illinois and .88 for northern. 

 It is most abundant in creeks, but is also quite common in ponds and 

 the smaller rivers. It has a noticeable preference for quiet and 

 muddy waters, and the greater part of our collections have come 

 from the weedy branches of the Embarras, Little Wabash, and 

 Big Muddy, in eastern and central Illinois. It has also occurred 

 occasionally in the main stream of the Illinois, or in the muddy 

 overflow ponds of the bottoms. Indeed, large numbers of this fish 

 are annually destroyed by the drying up of such ponds after the 

 overflow. 



Its general range includes the tributaries of Lake Erie and Lake 

 Michigan, extending thence southward to the Tennessee, Escanaba, 

 and White rivers, and, according to Evermann and Cox, to the 

 Neuse River on the Atlantic slope. From the fact that it is not con- 



