24 FISHES OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO. 



Family XV. ESOCID^. The Pikes. 



Long, rather slender, somewhat compressed fishes with long 

 heads and wide mouths well filled with teeth, dorsal fin single, soft 

 and set far back, lateral line more or less imperfect. (See plate 8.) 



56. Esox veriniciilatus Le Sueur. Little Pickerel. 



[Jord. Man. 214. O. St. Surv. 108.] 



Olive green ; sides with many darker curved streaks and spots; 

 cheeks and opercles entirely scaly. Length 1 2 inches. 



Common: found in the head waters of most streams and 

 among the pads of spatter-docks in the bayous. Not often taken 

 in open water, or in the larger streams. In June very small ones 

 may be caught, but later all seined in a given stream will be very 

 evenly matched, due I think to cannibalistic tendencies. One, 6J^ 

 inches long, was seined in the act of digesting the head of another 

 that was 4^ inches long; the rest of the body was waiting its turn 

 outside. Where common, as in the east branch of Vermillion 

 River, near Kipton, none but the hardiest species hold their own 

 against them. 



57. Esox lucius Linnaeus. Common Pike. Pickerel. 



[Jord. Man. 2l6. O. St. Smy. 109.] 



Greenish grey, mottled and streaked with yellowish spots and 

 bars. Opercles without scales on lower half, cheeks scaled. Length 

 30 to 50 inches. 



Pickerel are often killed in the ponds and channels of the snipe 

 ground when, for a few days, about the first of April, they are spawn- 

 ing. They are speared, shot or clubbed, the nature of the water 

 making it impossible to use tackle. But their season is short, and 

 during the rest of the year ' ' lucius " is quite safe, being seldom taken. 

 I have seen two brought in from the pounds, one taken on a 

 troll in the lake, and have seined two in the lower part of Black 

 River. 



58. Esox ina.sqiimoiig-y (Mitchill). Maskalonge. 



[Jord. Man. 217. O. St. Surv. 1 10.] 



Dark greyish black above, sides light with dark round spots, 

 belly white, cheeks and opercles scaleless on lower half . (See plate 8.) 



Kirtland, writing of the Maskalonge, in 1851, says: "Forty 

 years since, this fish was far more abundant than at present." .\nd 

 now the old fishermen of Lorain say that they "used to be much 



