92 FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

ordinary power in seizing and holding its prey. The dorsal and anal fins are near 
the caudal. The dorsal base isa little longer than its longest ray and equals depth 
of body at its origin. Ventral fin midway between tip of snout and end of tail fin. 
B. 14 to 16; D. 17 to 20; A. 16 or 17; scales in lateral line 120 to 125. 
The ground color of the body is grayish, varying to bluish or greenish gray. The 
sides are thickly covered with pale blotches, none of them as large as the eye, ar- 
ranged nearlyin rows. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins have many rounded, dark 
spots. Adults without dark bar below eye.. Naked part of opercle bounded by a 
whitish streak. In the young the sides are covered with oblique yellowish bars, 
which afterward break up into the pale spots of the adult. 
Names.—Pike is the best known name for this species, although the 
misnomer “pickerel” is rather extensively used. The origin of pike is 
involved in uncertainty; some trace it to the resemblance in shape of 
the snout to the pike or spear, while others believe it to refer to the 
the darting motion of the fish when speeding through the water. The 
name pickerel is used in Vermont and around Lake George, New York. 
“Frank Forrester” (Herbert) styles it the great northern pickerel. The 
name jack is applied in Great Britain to the young pike. Brochet is the 
French name, hecht the German and Juccio the Italian designation of the 
species. In Prof. Cope’s paper in earlier reports of the Pennsylvania 
Fish Commission the names lake pike and grass pike are used for the 
fish. 
Distribution.—In the North Temperate and Arctic regions of North 
America, Europe and Asia the pike is equally common. In North 
America it extends from Pennsylvania to high northern latitudes. In 
Alaska Townsend and others found it above the Arctic Circle, and Dall 
and Nelson took it in abundance in the Yukon. From Greenland and 
the islands of the Arctic‘Ocean the pike appears to be absent. The 
identity of our American pike with the common one of Europe was 
recognized by Cuvier and Richardson more than half a century ago; the 
former compared specimens from Lake Huron with European examples 
and Richardson with the English pike and both were unable to find 
specific differences between the two. 
Size.—On the continent of Europe the largest recorded specimen was 
taken at Bregenty in 1862; this was said to weigh one hundred and forty- 
five pounds. In Scotland a pike measuring over seven feet and weigh- 
ing seventy-two pounds has been reported. We do not find monsters 
jike these in America. “Frank Forrester” mentions individuals of six- 
teen to seventeen pounds. Lake George, New York, is famous for its 
large pike. Dr. Frank Presbrey, of Washington, D. C., caught one there 
in 1889 weighing a little more than sixteen pounds and over thirty ex- 
amples, averaging above ten pounds each, were taken that season by 
another Washington party in the same waters; some of the largest pike 
were upward of four feet long, The average length of adults is about 
two feet. 
Season.—The fishing season generally begins June 1 and ends Decem- 
ber 1; but many of the states have no close season. In Pennsylvania the 
close time lasts from December 1 to June 1. 
