248 FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



preopercle entire or serrate; opercular margin usually with a flat spine; pyloric 

 coeca few; lateral line present; scales ctenoid, adherent, covering body more or 

 less completely, head naked or partly scaled; dorsal fins 2, nearly always 

 separate, the first with 6 to 15 spines; anal equal to or smaller than second 

 dorsal, with 1 or 2 spines; caudal forked, notched, square or rounded; pectorals 

 of various sizes, sometimes quite large; ventrals well developed, inserted below 

 pectorals, consisting of 1 spine and 5 soft rays. The family has 12 genera and 

 22 known species in North Carolina waters. 



Key to the North Carolina genera of perches. 



i. PseudobranchiEe and air-bladder well developed; branchiostegals 7; preopercle serrate; 

 species large or medium sized. 

 a. Large canine teeth on jaws and palatine bones; ventral fins well separated; pyloric coeca 



3 to 7; vertebrae 46 Stizostbdion. 



aa. No canine teeth; ventral fins close together; pyloric coeca 3; vertebrae 41 Pebca. 



ii. Pseudobranchiae and air-bladder slightly developed or absent; branchiostegals 6; preoper- 

 cular margin not serrate; species all small, some of them minute. 



Percina, Bolbosoma, and other genera of darters. 



Genus STIZOSTBDION Rafinesque. Pike Perches. 



Large American fresh- water fishes, closely related to the pike perch of Europe, 

 with very elongate, little compressed body; long, conical head; large mouth, 

 with long, sharp canine teeth and villiform teeth in bands; spinous opercles, 

 serrated preopercles; 7 branchiostegals; slender gill-rakers; 3 to 7 pyloric coeca; 

 large air-bladder; small ctenoid scales covering all of body and parts of head; 

 lateral line complete; dorsal fins disconnected, with 12 to 15 spines and 17 to 21 

 soft rays; 2 slender anal spines; and well-separated ventrals. Two species, most 

 numerous in the Great Lakes; one found locally. (^Stizostedion, pungent throat.) 



213. STIZOSTEDION VITREUM (Mitchill). 



"WaU-eyedPike"; "Jack"; "Salmon"; "Pickerel"; "River Trout"; "Brook Trout"; 



"Golden Trout"; "California Salmon"; Jack Salmon; Pike Perch; 



Blue Pike; Yellow Pike. 



Perca vitrea Mitchill, American Monthly Magazine, ii, 247, 1818; Cayuga Lake, New York. 

 Siizostedium americanum et salmoneum, Cope, 1870b, 448-449; French Broad and Neuse rivers. 

 Stizosiedion viireum, Jordan, 18896, 150; French Broad River. Smith, 1893a, 192, 196, 200; Pasquotank River, 

 Edenton Bay, Roanoke River. Jordan & Evermann, 1896, 1021, figs, 433, 433a, 



DiAGONSis. — Form rather slender, depth greatest just behind head, somewhat more than 

 .2 length; head .28 to .37 length; mouth large, maxillary reaching beyond middle of orbit; eye 

 somewhat more than .2 head, its diameter shorter than snout; scales small, 110 to 130 in 

 lengthwise series, about 35 in transverse series, a few scales on cheeks and top of head; 

 pyloric coeca 3; dorsal fins separated by a space greater than eye, the rays xii to xvi + 19 to 21, 

 the longest spines .5 head, the bases of the 2 fins of nearly equal length; anal rays ii,12 to ii,14; 

 caudal deeply concave. Color: variable; general tone dark green, yellow, or blue, more or 

 less blotched or mottled with darker; lower parts and fins pale; a large black spot on posterior 

 part of spinous dorsal; soft dorsal and caudal mottled with yellow and green; pectoral base 

 dusky, (vitreum, glassy.) 



The pike perch is one of the most important commercial fishes of the United 

 States, and is cultivated on an immense scale by the United States government 



