Banded Pickerel 



dd. Head longer, )\ in length of body; snout 2\ in head; eye 

 2\ in snout. Colour, light greenish, the side with many 

 narrow curved streaks of darker, these usually distinct, ir- 

 regular, and much reticulated; fins plain; verniiciilatiis, 234 



cc. Branchiostegals 14 to 16; scales about 12^; dorsal rays 14; 

 anal 13; middle of eye midway between tip of lower jaw 

 and posterior margin of opercle. Colour, greenish, with 

 many narrow dark curved lines and streaks, mostly hori- 

 zontal and more or less reticulated; fins plain; 



ret ic 111 of lis, 2)^ 



bb. Opercles without any scales on the lower half; dorsal rays 

 16 or 17. Colour, grayish, with many whitish spots, the 

 young with whitish or yellowish crossbars; dorsal, anal, and 

 caudal spotted with black; a white horizontal band bounding 

 naked portion of opercle. Size large; lucins, 2)6 



aa. Cheeks as well as opercles with the lovv/er half naked; bran- 

 chiostegals 17 to 19. 



d. Sides grayish, with round or squarish blackish spots, not 

 coalescing to form bands; niasqiiiiiongv, 237 



dd. Sides brassy, with narrow daik cross-shades, which break 

 up into vaguely outlined dark spots; ohiejisis, 239 



ddd. Sides grayish, unspotted or with very vague dark cross- 

 shades ; iminaculatiis, 240 



Banded Pickerel 



Esox amcricaniis Gmelin 



This small pickerel, reaching a length of about a foot, oc- 

 curs only east of the Alleghany Mountains, from Massachusetts 

 to Florida, the westernmost record being Flomaton, Alabama. 

 It is abundant in all lowland streams and swamps of this region. 

 It takes the baited hook readily but is too small to be of much food 

 or game value. 



Easily known by the complete scaling of cheeks and opercles and 

 in having 12 or 13 branchiostegals. 



Little Pickerel ; Grass Pike 



Esox vcrmiculatiis Le Sueur 



The grass pike occurs abundantly throughout the middle and 

 upper Mississippi Valley and in streams tributary to Lakes Erie and 



234 



