THE PIKES: DISTRIBUTION AND COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE. 7 



are least likely to prey upon each other and which do not subsist 

 upon exactly the same kind of food.* Again, applying the fore- 

 going to the members of the pike family, while many of the old bal- 

 ances of interrelations have been upset or seriously distm'bed, if due 

 caution is exercised they may be restored or new counterpoises 

 estabhshed. 



In the following pages citations to Hterature are by names of 

 author and date of publication m parentheses, indicating the pub- 

 lication referred to in the appended bibhographical list. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PIKES. 



The muskellunge, pike, and pickerels are aU pikes in a generic 

 sense. There are other fishes belonging to entirely different families 

 and, therefore, structurally different and distinct from the true pikes, 

 which, unfortunately, have the local names of pike and pickerel. 

 The most common species thus designated belong to the perch family. 

 The spinous dorsal fin possessed by these fishes readily distinguishes 

 them from the true pikes. They are more properly designated as 

 pike perch, wall-eyed pike, sauger, etc. The ''pike" part of these 

 names, however, signifies only a resemblance, yet in certain locah- 

 ties the pike perch is called ''pike" and in others "pickerel." This 

 is altogether unfortunate, as it has caused regrettable confusion, 

 particularly in compiling statistics of the fisheries. 



The true pikes are characterized by having a rather long, broad, 

 flattish snout ; a large mouth extending about halfway the length of 

 the head; the lower jaw the longer; and both jaws provided with 

 broad bands of teeth, which are coarse and rough hke wool cards 

 and more or less movable. The dorsal and anal fins are situated 

 near the tail and are similar and opposite. The ventral fins are 

 abdominal. 



The preceding characters serve to distinguish the pikes from the 

 pike perches, and the following will distinguish them from aU 

 other fishes having abdominal ventral fins: Body with ordinary 

 scales; back without adipose fin but with a single dorsal fin made up 

 of soft rays and not preceded by free spines; anal fin without dis- 

 tinct spines; tail forked; pectoral fin situated below the median 

 Ime of the body from tip of snout to base of tail; head more or less 

 scaly; gill membranes not attached to the prolongation of the body 

 forward between the gill openings; no barbels; maxillaries distinct; 

 upper jaw not protractile, that is, its forward end is firmly joined to 

 the snout; both jaws provided with sharp teeth, varying in size and 

 arranged in broad bands; snout somewhat prolonged and depressed. 



o Jardine (1898) states that in artificial carp ponds in Germany it is the custom to keep a few pike, the 

 carp cultnrist knowing just how many to introduce. A few act beneficially in destroying the smaller and 

 weaker individuals of the carp stock, which would not attain a growth in three years commensurate to 

 their consumption of food. 



