﻿HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 313 



may be met witli in Boston market almost any month in the year, although greater 

 numbers are taken in the spring and autumn, and some years during the winter. The 

 largest specimens I have seen were brought from Brewstei', Cape Cod. Indi'\-iduals 

 from that place weighing seven pounds have been sold in our market, and they are said 

 to be taken there considerably larger even than this. They are generally caught with 

 the hook; considerable quantities, however, are speared, in some cases through the 

 ice ; at other times individuals go out in boats in the eAening with lights, the pick- 

 erel are attracted, and are speared as they collect round the boats. 



Maine, Massachusetts, Storer. Connecticut, Linslet, Ayres. New York, Dekay. 

 Ohio, Kirtlaxd. 



Esox ORNATUS, Gimrd. 



The Smaller Pickerel. 

 (Plate XX^^ Fig. 2.) 

 Esox omalus, Gieakd, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, v. p. 41. 1S54. 



Color. A darkish-green, barred transversely and quite regularly with narrow blackish- 

 brown bands, some twenty in number, which hardly reticulate ; not at all posteriorlv. 

 The black band beneath the eye pointing somewhat obliquely backward. Throat 

 stained with fuliginous. 



Descrij)tio!i. Very similar in its characters to those of the reticuhtus. The follow- 

 ing diflferences are observable. Head considerably more than one fourth the whole 

 length of the body ; in the reticulatus it is one fourth. 



The distance of the ventrals before the anal fin is about one quarter of the whole 

 length ; in the reticulatus it is not one sixth. 



The pectorals commence on a line with the sixth branchial ray ; in the reticulatus, on 

 a line with the sixteenth. 



The fin rays are as follows : — D. 11. P. 13. V. 9. A. 11. C. 19. 



Length, seven and a half inches. 



Remarks. This species is not unfrequently noticed in Boston market, and is so 

 similar to the reticulatus that it has heretofore been considered to be the young of that 

 species. 



Massachusetts, Girard, Storer. 



