LOCAL MISNOMERS. 227 



THE COMMON PICKEREL. 



Esox Retkulatm — Lesueur. 



Throughout the United States, excepting only the extreme 

 western and southern waters^ this is perhaps the commonest of 

 all the game fishes ; from New England to the western Hmits of 

 Pennsylvania, not a river, pond, or streamlet but abounds with 

 this bold and rapacious fish ; and it is probable that, like many 

 other of the northern fish, he is found in the waters of the hill 

 districts of Virginia, Carolina, and even of the Western States, 

 although in such locations he is lost sight of among the tribes 

 peculiar to those regions. 



With regard to the Southern States especially, it is almost 

 impossible to arrive at anything like certainty concerning the 

 species or varieties of game fish to be found within their limits, 

 from the universal misapplication of names, and the unhappy 

 tendency of sportsmen, to which I have already made allusion, 

 to adopt any barbarous local misnomer, rather than to make 

 themselves acquainted with the true specific names, and to learn 

 the distinctions, so as to speak understandingly of the game 

 which they take. 



It is indeed a hopeless task to hunt up the real peculiarities 

 and true genera of fish, known in their own regions as the 

 " Welshman," the " Pampolin,'' and such other denominations, 

 which of course are not to be found in any work of natural 

 history, while the people, who are in the habit of taking them 



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