Jordan and -Evermann. Pishes of North America. G27 



922. LUCIUS VERMICULATUS (Lo Sueur). 



(LITTLE PICKEREL.) 



Head 3i; depth 5 to 6 ; eye large, 2^ in snout, about 6 in head. B. 12 

 (11 to 13) ; D. 11 or 12 ; A. 11 or 12 j scales 105. Body moderately stout, 

 somewhat compressed; head rather short, longer than in Lucius ameri- 

 canus, but shorter than in L. reticulatus, the eye being exactly in tlie 

 middle of the head ; middle of eye nearer tip of chin than gill opening ; 

 snout 2 in head ; caudal well forked. Color green or grayish ; sides 

 with many curved streaks, sometimes forming bars, but more usually 

 forming marmorations or reticulations, the color extremely variable, some- 

 times quite plain ; sides of head usually variegated ; a dark bar down- 

 ward from eye, and one forward ; base of caudal sometimes mottled ; 

 other fins usually plain. Length 12 inches. Mississippi Valley, tribu- 

 taries of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan south to Mississippi and Arkansas ; 

 not known from east of the Alleghanies nor Texas ; a small species, very 

 abundant in the small streams and bayous of the South and West, (ver- 

 miculatus, with, marks like worm tracks.) 



Esox vermiciilatus, LE SUEUR, in CUVIEB & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., xvm, 333, 1846, 

 Wabash River, New Harmony, Indiana; (Coll. Le Sueur); MEEK & NEWLAND, Proc. 

 Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1885, 369. 



Esox lineatus, LE SUEUR, in CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., xvin, 335, 1846, Wabash 

 River, New Harmony, Indiana. (Coll. Le Sueur.) 



Esox crassus, AGASSIZ, Amer. Journ. Sci. Arts, 1854, 308, Tennessee River, Huntsville, 

 Alabama. 



Esox umbrosus, KIRTLAND, Proc. Cleveland Ac. Sci., 1854, 79, small bay of Rocky River, 

 Rockport, near Cleveland, Ohio ; COPE, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. Phila., 1866, 409. 



Esox cypho* COPE, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1865, 78, Waterford, Oakland County, Michi- 

 gan; (Coll. Professor Miles); GUNTHER, Cat., vi, 230, 1866. 



Esox porosus, COPE, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. Phila., 1866,408, Waterford, Oakland County, 

 Michigan; substitute for cypho, regarded as an inept name. (Coll. Professor Miles.) 



Esox salmoneuft, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 352, 1883 ; not of RAFINESQUE. 



923. LUCIUS RETICULATUS,! (Le Sueur). 

 (COMMON EASTERN PICKEREL ; GREEN PIKE ; JACK.) 



Head 3| ; depth 6 ; eye small, about 3 J in snout, 8 in head. B. 14 to 16 ; 

 D. 14; A. 13 (counting developed rays only); scales 125. Body rather 

 slender, deepest near the middle and tapering backward to a slender 

 caudal peduncle; head long, the snout prolonged, about 21 times in 

 head. Middle of eye midway between tip of chin and gill opening. 

 Cheeks and opercles entirely scaly; caudal well forked. Color green, of 

 varying shades ; sides with golden luster, and marked with numerous 

 dark lines and streaks, which are mostly horizontal, and by their junc- 

 tion with one another produce a reticulated appearance ; a dark band 



* This form (cypho= porosus), distinguished mainly by the arched back and steep profile, is 

 probably a variety or accidental form of vermiculalus. 



f "A solemn, stately, ruminant fish, lurking under the shadow of a lily pad at noon, with still, 

 circumspect, voracious eye, motionless as a jewel set in water, or moving slowly to take up its 

 position; dashing from time to time at such unlucky fish or frog or insect as comes within its 

 range and swallowing it at a gulp. Sometimes a striped snake, bound for greener meadows 

 across the stream, ends its undulatory progress in the same receptacle." Thoreau. 



