404 GAME FISH OP NORTH AMERICA. 



the stripes are clouded yellow and sulphur color. The belly is 

 white and the tail bluish margined with white. It has a large 

 broad head which is concave on top, where it is occupied by an 

 oval adhesive disk bordered by a fleshy thick nio\able substance, 

 and divided in the mesial line, on each side of which are twenty- 

 one transverse plates, their free margins divided backward and 

 serrated. By this disk it attaches itself to any object, and is found 

 adhering to the bottoms of boats, and to the bodies of large fish. 

 It is frequently taken with blackfish, (sea bass) and is attracted by 

 the same bait. 



ESOCID^. 



Pike. — Esox lucius^ or reticulatus. 



In the salt waters of Chesapeake Bay is found a true pike whose 

 habitat, it has been ascertained, is confined almost exclusively to 

 salt water. Some who have been cognizant of this fish have main- 

 tained that it was a distinct variety, but there seems to be no doubt 

 of its identity with the inland pike, and we find it referred to as 

 Esox reticulatus (Le Sueur, et al,) and E. lucius (Mitchell), in the 

 Reports of the Maryland Fish Commissioners, the most valuable 

 work of the kind that has yet been issued. Our extended investi- 

 gations show that these fish spawn in the Patapsco, Magoty, 

 Chester, Sassafras, Choptank and Annapolis Roads. There are 

 few caught below the Choptank, and scarcely any above the Sas- 

 safras River. They are taken every day in the year, the largest 

 quantity in extreme cold weather, when they are brought to mar- 

 ket by wagon loads. At Norfolk the)' are not common. Prof. 

 EUzey, of Bladesburg, Virginia, says that they were very numer- 

 ous six or seven years ago at West River, Marjdand, where they 

 were caught in seines in February and March, but during the past 

 few seasons only occasional specimens have been taken. He vol- 

 unteers the opinion that they might be taken with the fly. Prof 

 Beal, of the Gov(m Agricultural College, says he has known of 

 their being taken through the ice in winter with a hook. 



•While residing at Annapolis, I had several opportunities for 

 examining this fish when fresh from the water, and should pro- 

 nounce i'. identical with the common fresh-water pickerel (Esox 



