GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 225 



on the sides of the lower jaw are a row of larger awl-shaped 

 teeth, implanted in the bone; the palate bones, vomer, and 

 pharyngeal arches, are all armed with bands of small sharp teeth, 

 like carding machines, as in the former species ; the tongue is 

 broad, and truncated at the tip. 



The gill-covers are nearly as they are described in the Masca- 

 longe, except that the edge of the sub-operculum is straighter 

 and more vertical, and that the opercula are in a slight degree 

 scaly. 



The gill-openings are very large : and the branchiostegous 

 rays are fifteen in number, or more numerous by two than in 

 the English Pike, which differs from the Northern Pickerel 

 moreover in the number of all the fin-rays, in having the cheeks 

 and opercula covered with regular scales, as in the Esox Reticu- 

 latus, and in the teeth on its vomer and palatine being dispersed 

 into lines, rather than planted in serried patches. 



The Northern Pickerel has dorsal fin-rays, twenty-one; anal, 

 eighteen ; caudal, seven above and seven below the larger lateral 

 rays; the whole caudal divided into two unequal lobes, the 

 upper of nine, the lower of eight rays ; the ventral, eleven, and 

 the anal, sixteen. 



The back of this beautiful fish is of a rich blackish green, 

 which changes on the sides to greenish grey ; there is a bright 

 speck on the tip of each scale, which gives a singularly light and 

 sparkling aspect to the whole fish. The belly is of a lustrous 

 pearly white. There are several rows of oblong, diamond- 

 shaped, yellowish grey spots on the sides of the head, body, and 

 tail. The cheeks are varied with emerald green reflections, the 

 under jaw and gill-rays white ; the irides purple, with a golden 



Q 



