388 AMERICAN CAME FISHES. 



Americans who thus tried to engraft English names on the 

 fauna of the American waters; but Cope, Gill, Thompson 

 LeSeur, Kirtland, an 1 Jordan have taught even boys bet- 

 ter; they know more than their fathers did the difference 

 between the members of the Esox family. 



E. reticulatus (L :Seur). Common Eastern Pickerel; Green 

 Pike. The snout much prolonged; front of eye about midway 

 in head; eye more than three times in snout; coloration, 

 green; sides with a net work of brown streaks. 



Streams of Atlantic States abundant, but not found far in 

 the interior. 



E. cypho (Cope). Vulgate Humpbacked Pickerel, probably 

 best known by tiie elevated back and broad swollen ante-dor 

 sal region. Colors usually plain (olive green) or somewhat 

 reticulate. Western States. 



E. Americanus (Gmelin). Banded Pickerel: Trout Pickerel. 

 The snout much shorter than in the preceding; eye much 

 nearer snout than opercular margin. Color: dark green; sides 

 with about twenty blackish curved bars; scarcely reticulated. 

 Length, rarely a foot long. Home, Atlantic Streams. 



E. Salmoneus (Rafmesque). Little Pickerel; Western Trout 

 Pickerel. Size and general form of preceding, (about a 

 foot long,) or more slender. Color, olivaceous green above, 

 tinting to a white below; sides with many reticulations and 

 curved streaks, instead of bars; a black streak in front of 

 eye as well as below. Western streams abundant. Resem 

 bles reticulatus more than Americanus. Jord'an. 



Comparing the reticulatus and lucius, anyone can readily 

 distinguish the points of difference defined in the descriptions 

 of Rafmesque, Cope, ami LeSeur; and the Pickerel once 

 out of the water, his relations with the Pike family are 

 established. 



The Pickerel are spring-spawners hence boys see them just 

 as soon as the ice has cleared out, the snow-water gone and 

 the warm days come. They are found in shoal water 

 amongst weeds, or where the branches of trees are project- 

 ing from the shore into the water. Here they are found in 

 pairs, gently swimming backward and forward in the stream, 



