38 THE PIKES: DISTEIBTJTION' AND COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE. 



school of trout-pickerel * * * common in this lake, and it was 

 a handsome, clean fish." 



NAMES. 



Forbes (1908) referred to it as little pickerel and grass pike. This 

 latter name appears also in many other publications. It is apparently 

 the common name apphed to it in the Pennsylvania Fish Com- 

 mission's reports. Bean mentioned it also under the name of trout 

 pickerel. 



SIZE. 



The general statements regarding its size are that it never attains 

 a length of over 12 inches. 



HABITAT AND HABITS. 



Habitat. — According to Forbes (1908), it has a noticeable pref- 

 ence for quiet and muddy water, and a greater part of his collections 



FIG. 6.— LITTLE P\CKE.9.EL {EsoxvermicuMus). 



were stated to have come from the weedy branches of the Embar- 

 ros, Little Wabash, and Big Muddy in eastern and central lUinois. 

 He wrote that it also occurred occasionally in the main stream of the 

 Ilhnois 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. 



Feeding. — Forbes (1908) stated that the feeding mechanism of 

 this Httle species is a reduced copy of that of the destructive and 

 voracious common pike, and its food, as illustrated by 18 speci- 

 mens, seems to be of a purely animal nature. Two of these had 

 eaten frog tadpoles and eight had taken fishes, one of which was a 

 cyprinoid minnow, one a sunfish, and the other a common top min- 

 now (Gamhusia) of the southern part of the State. The remaining 

 food was mostly composed of the larger aquatic insects. Amphipods 

 and isopod crustaceans have been found in the stomachs of other 

 specimens taken from Quiver Lake, near Havana. 



Breeding. — Nothing definite appears to have been pubhshed 

 regarding the breeding habits of this species. Forbes (1908) stated 

 that it apparently spawns early and ripe individuals of both sexes 

 had been seen by him in March. 



