914 FISHES — ESOCID^. 



Eeox, LiNNiBus. — Branohiostegals 14 to 16 ; cheeks scaly ; lower half of operole bare ; 

 species of lather large size, light spotted on rather daik ground (species, Indus). 



MuacaUmgus, Joedan.— Branchiostegala 17 to 19 ; lower half of cheeks as well as 

 operoles, bare ; species reaching an immense size, black-spotted on a lighter gronnd 

 (species, noMlior), 



108. Esox SALMONEUS Rafinesque. 



Liittle Pickerel. 



Esox salmoneu8, Eapinesqde, loh. Oh., 70. — Jordan, Bnll. Baflf. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1876> 

 96.— JOKDAN, Man. Vert., 2d Ed., 1878, 267, and of late writers. 



Picorellus salmoneus, Jordan, Man. Vert., 1st Ed., 256. 



Esox vermiculatus, LeStjbtjr, Cnv. and Val., Hist. Nat. des Poiss., xvili, 333. 



Esox Uneatus, LkSueur, Cav. and Yal., 1. c, xyiii, 335. 



Esox Ivguirosus, LeSukur, Cnv. and Val., xviii, 338. 



Eeox umiroaua, Kirtlakd, Cleveland Annals of Science, 1855, 79.— Cope, Proc. Phila. 

 Acad. Soi., 1865, 79 ; Cyp. Penn. (Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc), 1866, 408. 



Esox cypho, Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Soi. Phila., 1865, 78. — Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. 

 Mns , vi, 230.— Jordan, Man. Vert., 2d Ed., 267, and of most writers. 



Esox porosus, Cope, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, 1866, 408. 



Description. — Body moderately ^ont, somewhat compressed ; head rather short, the eye 

 being exactly in the middle of the head ; eye large, less than three times in snont, about 

 six in head ; cheeks and operole entirely scaly ; caudal well forked ; color green or gray- 

 ish ; sides with many cnrved streaks,- sometimes forming bars, but more usually form- 

 ing marmorations or reticulations, the color extremely variable, sometimes quite plain ; 

 sides of head usually variegated ; a dark bar downward from eye and one forward ; 

 base of caudal sometimes mottled ; other fins usually plain ; head 3^ ; depth 5-6 ; D. 11 ; 

 A. 11 ; Lat. 1. 105. Smallest of all the Pikes. The length about a foot. 



Habitat, entire Ohio Valley and in streams tributary to the Great Lakes from the 

 South ; also in the Upper Mississippi Valley. • 



Diagnosis. — From the other Ohio Pikes, this species may be known hj 

 its entirely scaly operdes, and its small size and slender form. 



The nearly related Eastern species, Esox reliculatus, LeSueur, the com- 

 mon Pickerel of the seaboard States differs in having the snout longer, 

 and the branohiostegals more numerous, 14 or 15 in number. 



Habits. — This little fish is found throughout the State, but is especially 

 abundant in the ponds and streams tributary to the Ohio. It swarms in 

 the spring in ponds formed by the overflow of the creeks. Thousands 

 of them are destroyed yearly by the drying of such ponds. In the 

 spring it ascends all small streams, and it is often found in temporary 

 brooks in cornfields and other unexpected places, remote from its native 

 waters. People finding pickerel thus stranded often affirm stoutly that 

 they " rain down." 



This species is too small to be of any importance as food. I have not 

 seen any of more than the length of a foot. 



