394 Roosci'clt Wild Life Jiuials 



a portion of the fish may be seen protruding from the pickerers mouth as the 

 remainder is being digested in the stomach. In Umbagog Lake, ]\Iaine, and in 

 New Hampshire, of the numerous Chain Pickerels examined by Kendall, those 

 that contained any food at all usually had small suckers. Two pickerel taken 

 from different localities in Maine had each eaten a common Bullhead, Anieinnis 

 nebulosus, 4 inches long or under. Smith ('07, p. 144) says it feeds chiefly 

 on Alewives, about Albemarle Sound, North Carolina. 



There is considerable published information on the food of this species. 

 Thoreau notes that striped snakes are eaten by this pickerel (Jordan and Evermann, 

 '96, p. 627). The four young Chain Pickerel about 5-10 inches long examined by 

 Baker ('18, p. 215) had eaten midges, May-ffies and fish. Young Chain Pickerels 

 2'/; to about 4 inches long taken in Maine were found by Kendall ('13. p. 23; 

 '17, p. 2'j) to have been feeding almost wholly upon aquatic larvae of insects. 

 Three taken near Freeport. Maine (Kendall. '17, p. 27), that measured ii-i5>4 

 inches in length, also contained nothing but such larvae. Some small individuals 

 (21/4-6^^ inches) had also eaten fish, including sunfish, Eitpomotis gibhosus. about 

 an inch long, which had been taken by a pickerel 3^ inches long. Small fingerling 

 pickerel (I.e., p. 28) had also been eaten by larger young of their own species 

 from about 4 to 6J/2 inches long. Greeley ('2y, p. 62) opened two specimens from 

 the Genesee System and found in one iiJ/2-inch specimen, a Notcmigonus cryso- 

 Iciicas about two inches long : and in another specimen 534 inches long, a 

 Eupoiiiotis gibhosus ^ of an inch long. 



Enemies and Disease. Kendall ('17, p. 2)i) considers that the habits of the 

 pickerel expose it to more dangers than are incurred by most other kinds of fresh- 

 water fishes. He notes that chubs {Scnwtilus biiHaris) are serious enemies of this 

 pickerel. He has seen them feeding on the yoinig and has caught a dozen or so 

 of these fish, of about one-half a pound to a pound each, gorged with little pickerels 

 two or there inches long. He mentions also seeing a young pickerel chased and 

 driven out of water and on to a sand bar by a trout. This pickerel, about four 

 inches long, was then secured by Kendall and used as bait by which the trout, which 

 was about ten inches long, in turn was caught by him. The natural enemies of the 

 pickerel as enumerated by Kendall ('18, p. 583) are frogs, other fishes as well as 

 its own species, mergansers, grebes, loons, kingfishers and herons. 



A small specimen of the species, i^ inches long, was found in the stomach of 

 an Esox Indus 4}^ inches long, caught by us in Fish Creek, a tributary to Oneida 

 Lake (Coll. No. 515). There is also some evidence that Inillheads destroy this 

 pickerel ( l^verniann and Kendall. '1/1. p. 51)7: Kendall. '17, ]). 33V 



The eggs and fry of the Chain Pickerel are also subject to serious dangers, 

 according to Kendall ('17, p. 33) who says: "The character of the egg masses and 

 their exposed situation in shallow water subject them to the ravages of other 

 fishes, such as suckers, chubs, perch, etc., as well as reptiles and waterfowl. 



".\ Superintendent of one of the Pennsylvania hatcheries wrote that he esti- 

 mated that fully 10 jjcr cent of eggs deposited are devoured by other fishes before 

 they are hatched and that storms sometimes sweep the eggs from where they are 

 deposited and float them a.shore, where they rot. He stated that he had seen hun- 

 dreds of millions of eggs thus wa.shed ashore and lost. But the destruction does 



