142 



FISHES OP NORTH CAROLINA. 



numerous; scales in lateral series 35, in transverse series 13; dorsal rays 14; anal rays 7 or 8. 

 Color: dark or yellowish green, with 10 or 12 pale, narrow lengthwise stripes; a dark stripe 

 through eye; a black bar at base of tail; fins plain. Length, to 5 inches, (pygmcea, pygmy.) 



The mud minnow, which exists in lowland streams, swamps, and ditches 

 from New York to North Carolina, is known from only a few localities in the 

 latter state, although it may be looked for in all waters from the Neuse north- 

 ward. It is rather scarce in Tar River at Rocky Mount, and abundant in the 

 vicinity of Raleigh. The National Museum has specimens collected in the 

 Neuse at Goldsboro by James W. Milner in 1875. The writer did not find it in the 

 Albemarle region in 1892, although it is known from the Virginia waters of the 

 Dismal Swamp, from which some of the tributaries of Albemarle Sound flow. 

 In mudholes about Lake Ellis in Craven County Mr. C. S. Brimley found it com- 

 mon in 1905 and 1906. 



Family ESOCIDiE. The Pikes, Pickerels, and Muskallunges. 



A small family of fresh-water fishes of moderate to large size, peculiar to 

 North America with the exception of one species found also in northern Europe 

 and Asia. The body is very elongate, more or less compressed; the head long 

 and flattened, and the mouth very large and fully provided with teeth on jaws, 

 tongue, palatines, and vomer; lower jaw projecting; margins of upper jaw formed 

 by maxillaries, which have a supplemental bone; body covered with fine scales, 

 head naked above; lateral line present in adults; gill-slits wide, gill-membranes 

 not united and free from isthmus; gill-rakers short and toothed; branchiostegals 

 numerous; pseudobranchise glandular, concealed; dorsal and anal fins placed far 

 back; pectorals close together; caudal forked; air-bladder simple. There is a 

 single .genus. 



Genus ESOX Linnasus. Pikes, Pickerels, and Muskallunges. 



The pikes in general have been thus referred to by Professor Goode : 



They have been well described as mere machines for the assimilation of animal matter. 

 They are the wolves of the pondsj'the bliiefish of the fresh waters, and nothing comes amiss to 

 their ravenous maws. * * * * The hungry Esox is a sad foe to the proprietor of a fish preserve, 

 and until it has been banished from a pond, no other species can be expected to hve.* * * 

 The enemies of Esox in America denounce him vigorously, and declare that he is bony, flavor- 

 less, and of trifling value. He has his friends, however, * * * Tough old pike, and those 

 taken from muddy, sluggish water, are of course not to be desired, but as a rule any one of the 

 species is to be chosen as a delicate morsel for the table. 



The yield of the pikes in North Carolina in recent years has been from 30,000 

 to 100,000 pounds annually, for which the fishermen have received 2.5 to 4 cents 

 a pound. The bulk of the catch comes from Craven and Beaufort counties. 



Three representatives of this family and genus are found in the local waters, 

 and they may be distinguished as follows: 



i. Cheeks and opercles scaly; dorsal rays 11 to 15; branchiostegals 11 to 16, scales in lateral 

 series 100 to 125. 

 a-. Dorsal rays 11 to 14, anal rays 11 or 12; branchiostegals 11 to 13, scales in lateral series 

 88 to 110; small fish with numerous blackish vertical bars on sides americanus. 



