24 FISHES OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. 
FAMILY XV. ESOCID2. THE PIKES. 
Long, rather slender, somewhat compressed fishes with long 
heads and wide mouths well filled with teeth, dorsal fin single, soft 
and set far back, lateral line more or less imperfect. (See plate 8.) 
56. Esox vermiculatus Le Sueur. LirrLe PICKEREL. 
[Jord. Man. 214. O. St. Surv. 108.] 
Olive green ; sides with many darker curved streaks and spots; 
cheeks and opercles entirely scaly. Length 12 inches. 
Common: found in the head waters of most streams and 
among the pads of spatter-docks in the bayous. Not often taken 
in open water, or in the larger streams. In June very small ones 
may be caught, but later all seined in a given stream will be very 
evenly matched, due I think to cannibalistic tendencies. One, 6% 
inches long, was seined in the act of digesting the head of another 
that was 4% inches long; the rest of the body was waiting its turn 
outside. Where common, as in the east branch of Vermillion 
River, near Kipton, none but the hardiest species hold their own 
against them. 
57. Esox lucius Linneus. Common PIKE. PICKEREL. 
[Jord. Man. 216. O. St. Surv. 109.] 
Greenish grey, mottled and streaked with yellowish spots and 
bars. Ofercles without scales on lower half, cheeks scaled. Length 
30 to 50 inches. 
Pickerel are often killed in the ponds and channels of the snipe 
ground when, for a few days, about the first of April, they are spawn- 
ing. They are speared, shot or clubbed, the nature of the water 
making it impossible to use tackle. But their season is short, and 
during the rest of the year ‘‘lucius” is quite safe, being seldom taken. 
I have seen two brought in from the pounds, one taken on a 
troll in the lake, and have seined two in the lower part of Black 
River. 
58. Esox masquinongy (Mitchill). MasKALONGE. 
[Jord. Man. 217. O. St. Surv. I1o.] 
Dark greyish black above, sedes light with dark round spots, 
belly white, cheeks and opercles scaleless on lower half. (See plate 8.) 
Kirtland, writing of the Maskalonge, in 1851, says; “Forty 
years since, this fish was far more abundant than at present.” And 
now the old fishermen of Lorain say that they ‘‘used to be much 
