226 ESOCIDiE. 



band around the pupil; the dorsal and caudal fins are blackish 

 green, marked with patchy bands of a darker oil-green; the 

 anal greenish gray, with orange margins, and a few dark spots ; 

 the ventrals the same, with orange tips, but without spots ; the 

 pectorals dusky yellow. 



The Northern Pickerel is equal in boldness and voracity to 

 the Mascalonge, and to the northern European Pike, from which 

 he differs in the fin-rays, dental system, gill-covers, and very 

 essentially in the colouring, — the Pike being banded or mottled, 

 and having no indication whatever of the regular rhomboidal 

 spots which mark the sides, and form a characteristic of the 

 Northern Pickerel. 



He takes any sort of bait in spinning or trolling, and being 

 readily captui'ed by set baits through the ice, forms a very 

 essential article of food to the Indian hunter when the chase 

 fails him. No animal food of any kind comes amiss to this 

 fresh-water tyrant. Fish of every variety, even his own species, 

 and the spiny Perch, the immature young of wild fowl, rats, 

 reptiles of all sorts, — in short, every living thing that comes 

 within his reach ministers instantly to his voracious appetite. 



But the baits by which he is most sportingly secured are the 

 small bright Leucisci, or Shiners, at the end of a double swivel 

 trace, or a live frog, which he can rarely refuse. 



