182 THE COMMON PICKEREL. 



CHAPTEE XYII. 



THE COMMON PICKEREL. 



Esox RetiffvUatus. — These fish, which are sometimes 

 called by the learned, and none others, Pike, have on 

 their sides a network of dark lines upon a yellowish 

 ground, and are named by naturalists from this peculiar- 

 ity. The lines are sometimes longitudinal, and but little 

 reticulated. The fin-rays are — 



Dorsal 18 ; Pectoral 16 ; Ventral 10 ; Anal 14 ; Caudal 

 19|. Or, according to Agassiz — 



D. 20 ; P. 16 ; V. 10 ; A. 20 ; C. 18. 



This fish rarely exceeds ten pounds in weight, although 

 he has been said to attain fifteen ; but in these instances 

 has probably been confounded with the Northern Pick- 

 erel. He abounds all through the northern States, and 

 is emphatically the Pickerel, when the word is used 

 without other qualification. The darker, more sluggish 

 and weedy the water, the more he likes it ; old roots, 

 decayed trees and a muddy bottom are his delight, and 

 by his ferocity not a few ponds have been depopulated 

 of superior fish. Among a certain class of fishermen he 

 is a favorite, though utterly worthless for the table or as 

 sport, and the little enterprise our farmers have shown 

 has been in introducing this despicable fish into good 

 waters, where, in consequence of his rapid increase and 



