AMERICAN SPECIES. 3 



There are known to be several species of pike 

 in America, including the mascalonge (Esox estor} 

 and the northern pickerel (Esox lucioides] both 

 found in the great lakes ; the common pickerel 

 {Esox reticulatus] of the ponds and streams ; the 

 Long Island pickerel (Esox fasciatus\ also the 

 white and the black pickerel of the western waters ; 

 in a work recently published at New York, 1 Mr. 

 A. N. Cheney gives a coloured plate of each, 

 showing different marking and colouring; but he 

 admits that colouring and marking are no sure 

 guides in identification. 



I confess that I have always held the belief 

 that pickerel, pike, and mascalonge were simply 

 small, large and larger specimens of one and the 

 same kind of fish ; but the following authoritative 

 explanation, communicated by Mr. Cheney to the 

 Fishing Gazette (July 3, 1897), proves that I was 

 mistaken, and that, while in Europe we have but 

 one species of pike, in America there are no less 

 than five. 



" The common names of our five members of the pike 

 family are in order, beginning with the fish of largest growth: 

 mascalonge, pike, pickerel, little pickerel, and banded 

 pickerel, the two last named growing to about 12 in. in 

 length. Following Dr. Jordan's description, I will give the 

 common and specific names, fin formulae, scales, comparative 

 measurements, &c., from his recent work, Fishes of North 

 and Middle America (Jordan and Evermann). That all 

 your readers may understand the signs used, I will explain 

 that B. means branchiostegals ; D., dorsal fin ; A., anal fin. 

 ' Head 4 ' or ' depth 4 ' mean that the length of the head 

 in the one case, or the greatest depth of the body in the 

 other, is contained four times in the length of the fish, 



1 First Annual Report of the Commissioners of Fisheries, 

 Game, and Forests, of the State of New York. 



B 2 



