ESOX — PIKES 207 



tained in Evermann and Goldsborough's list of the fresh-water fishes 

 of Canada, we infer that it is not to be found north of the Great 

 Lakes. 



In its feeding structures, this little species is a reduced copy of 

 the destructive and voracious common pike, and its food, as illus- 

 trated by eighteen specimens, seems to be purely animal. Two of 

 these had eaten frog tadpoles, and eight had taken fishes, one of 

 which w r as a cyprinoid minnow, one a sunfish, and the other a com- 

 mon top-minnow (Gambit sia) of the southern part of the state. The 

 remaining food was mostly composed of the larger aquatic insects. 

 Amphipod and isopod crustaceans have been found in the stomachs 

 of other specimens, taken from Quiver Lake, near Havana. 



The species apparently spawns early, and ripe individuals of 

 both sexes have been seen by us in March. 



ESOX LUCIUS Linnaeus 

 (common pike; pickerel) 



Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Xat., Ed X, 314. 



G , VI, 228 & 229 (estor and depraudus); J. & G., 353; M. V., 89; J. & E.. I. 628 



(Lucius); X., 43 (lucius var. estor, and ? boreus); ]., 53; F., 71; F. F., II. 7, 



435; L. 21 (Lucius). 



Length 3 feet ; elongate and compressed ; depth 5 to 7 ; greatest width 

 about I greatest depth; depth caudal peduncle 1 . 7 to 2 . 2 in its length. 

 Color of back and sides bluish or greenish gray with more or less of 

 purplish luster; yellowish below and white on belly; sides with irregular 

 rows of small roundish spots of yellowish or gold ; single scales of side each 

 with a broad V-shaped golden spot; top of head plain dark olive-green; 

 cheeks and opercles bluish gray or heliotrope with pale greenish spots; 

 iris light drab below with golden margin, brassy yellow above pupil 

 and forward; all fins wax-yellow in the rays; dorsal with 3 to 5 rows of 

 roundish black spots equal in length to the width of three membranes; 

 caudal and anal similarly marked; ventrals with faint traces of spots; 

 pectorals plain. Head 2 . 9 to 3 . 6 (usually less than 3.4); width of head 

 about 3 ; interorbital 4.3 to 6.2; eye 5.8 to 9.5, midway of head; nose 

 1.9 to 2.4; mouth very large, maxillary past front of orbit, 2 to 2 . 2 in 

 head. Dorsal rays 15 or 16; anal 14 or IS; ventrals half way to front of 

 anal; pectorals f to ventrals, 2.2 to 2 . 6 in head in adults. Scales 122 

 to 125; cheeks fully scaled; lower half of opercles naked; lateral line 

 irregular, supplementary lateral pores in short and broken series above 

 and below it, especially on caudal peduncle. 



This noble fish, completely and almost ideally equipped for the 

 predatory life, has now nearly disappeared from the larger and mud- 

 dier streams of Illinois, but is still found in abundance in the head- 



