182 THE COMMON PICKEREL. 
CHAPTEE XYII 
THE co:mmon pickerel. 
Esox Reticulatus. — These fish, which are sometimes 
called by the learned, and none others, Pike, have on 
their sides a network of dark lines upon a yellowish 
ground, and are named by naturalists from this peculiar- 
ity. The lines are sometimes longitudinal, and but little 
reticulated. The fin-rays are — 
Dorsal 18 ; Pectoral 16 ; Yentral 10 ; Anal 14 ; Caudal 
19-^. Or, according to Agassiz — 
D. 20 ; P. 16 ; Y. 10 ; A. 20 ; C. 18. 
This fish rarely exceeds ten pounds in weight, although 
he has been said to attain fifteen ; but in these instances 
has probably been confounded with the ISTorthern Pick- 
erel. He abounds all through the northern States, and 
is emphatically the Pickerel^ when the word is used 
without other qualification. The darker, more sluggish 
and weedy the water, the more he likes it ; old roots, 
decayed trees and a muddy bottom are his delight, and 
by his ferocity not a few ponds have been depopulated 
of superior fish. Among a certain class of fishermen he 
is a favorite, though utterly worthless for the table or as 
sport, and the little enterprise our farmers have shown 
has been in introducing this despicable fish into good 
waters, where, in consequence of his rapid increase and 
