58 FAMILIAR FISH, THEIR HABITS AND CAPTURE 



lies hidden, darting out to seize the large or small fish 

 that form its principal food. It might well be termed 

 a fresh- water shark. The mouth, when open, is very 

 large, armed with sharp, formidable teeth, and the 

 jaws are wonderfully strong. 



As already stated, the muskallunge, pike, and 

 pickerel are similar in shape, and they have the same 

 number and kind of fins, placed alike on each. The 

 body or base color of back and sides is a green and 

 yellow, constantly varying in the different fish. Fre- 

 quently the back and sides will both be either a very 

 dark, medium, or light green, or the color of the 

 back may shade into a greenish yellow on the sides. 

 The belly varies from white to cream with all. Here 

 the similarity of the color of the muskallunge to that 

 of the pike and pickerel ceases. With the muskal- 

 lunge the markings are black or brown, and are 

 either round spots or vertical irregular blotches or 

 splashes Occasionally they may not have any mark- 

 ings whatever, but that rarely occurs. Aside from 

 the markings, the simplest and quickest way to dis- 

 tinguish these fish is by the scales on the head. 

 There is a very narrow strip on the top only of the 

 cheek and gill covers. The other fish of the family 

 can be distinguished by noticeable variations from 

 this. With the pike the entire cheek and the upper 

 half only of the gill covers have scales. On the 



