THE PIKES: THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, HABITS, CUL- 

 TURE, AND COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE* 



By William Converse Kendall, Scientific Assistant, Bureau of Fisheries. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Accurate and authentic accounts of the species of American pikes 

 are scarce in ichthyological literature. Most accounts consist of tra- 

 ditions and unsupported statements interspersed with hypothetical 

 generahties. This is partly, at least, due to the fact that in this 

 country most students of fishes have been systematists who have had 

 little opportunity to observe the habits of fishes, and the greater part 

 of such information has been in the nature of more or less detached 

 contributions and not always specifically reliable. The disjointed 

 character and sparsity of authentic information regarding the mem- 

 bers of the pike family provides one motive for the preparation of this 

 paper. It does not pretend to add much new knowledge, but it affords 

 an easy means of identification of the species and presents the sup- 

 posedly well-authenticated facts, so those who have opportunities to 

 make observations on the habits of one or more of the species may be 

 encouraged to do so. It may lead others to verify or disprove the 

 alleged facts and to increase our knowledge of these fishes, the value 

 of which, now that they are becoming scarcer, is receiving recog- 

 nition. 



Except locally or restrictively, the pikes have been more or less 

 regarded with aversion, especially by those who angle for the "nobler 

 fishes,'' and they have acquired a reputation for voracity and de- 

 structiveness that has always been likened to those qualities in the 

 shark. Fresh-water shark or, in the words of the poet, ''tyrant of 

 the watery plain" have always been common terms of opprobium 

 applied to the common large species of the family. However, it is 

 gradually dawning upon many who have previously condemned one 

 or the other or aU of the pikes that these fishes have had their special 

 place in natural economy and that in their natural interrelations 

 they have been no worse than other predacious fishes in theirs. It 

 is also beginning to be recognized that there are still proper places 

 for them in both natural and human economy. 



There is no doubt but that they aU possess good qualities, but the 

 different species differ in that respect, at least in popular opinion. 



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