906 
FOREST AND STREAM 
At First Sight the Edge of the Marshes Seemed Covered With Snow, But Through the Binoculars Long Rows of White Swan Appeared. 
The Pickerels and the Pikes 
Naturalists Recognize Great Differences, Which are Set Forth Here for 
The Benefit of the Ordinary Angler 
By Alfred C. Weed. 
THE WHISTLING SWAN OF CARRITUCK. 
Beautiful Specimens of Wild Life That Should 
Be Protected Permanently. 
Haverford, Pennsylvania. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Gratitude to your good magazine leads me to 
report to you something of the successful trip I 
have taken this winter. My father and I visited 
Monkey Island, Currituck Sound, N. C., in or¬ 
der to see the whistling swan. We found the 
Island surrounded. 
The babble resembled a band of Indians shout¬ 
ing wildly. At first sight, the edge of the 
marshes seemed to be covered with snow, but 
through the binoculars, long rows of white swan 
appeared. 
Late in the afternoon and all night long, swan 
would generally feed quite near our Island, keep¬ 
ing me awake frequently with their clear, clarion 
calls. 
The swan are protected by the Federal Law 
until 1918, and should never be considered game 
again, as they are one of our largest and hand¬ 
somest birds. Fortunately they are well able to 
take care of themselves and are very difficult to 
photograph or to shoot. 
I succeeded in making two exposures of one 
small flock that were distracted by a passing 
motor-boat, enabling me to crawl out across the 
marsh quite near to them. 
While on the Sound, we identified sixteen va¬ 
rieties of wild fowl, and twenty-three other 
birds. 
The conditions for gunning are perfect. Every 
precaution has been taken to protect the game. 
We had plenty of good luck, and fair weather, 
which is not propitious. 
Great praise should be given to the men who 
spend the days and nights of the hunting season, 
out on the marshes, as watchers for illegal gun¬ 
ners. 
As the swan can now be found in Currituck 
Sound alone, the Federal Law should be made 
permanent. 
Hoping that your magazine may help to pre¬ 
serve these magnificent birds, I am, 
Edward Wooi.man. 
I N this group scientists recognize from four 
to seven species which are placed in three 
groups. These groups may be recognized 
by the scaling of the sides of the head. The 
part of the head directly below and behind the 
eye is called the cheek while the gill-cover just 
behind it and usually separated from it by a 
narrow naked streak is called the opercle. In 
the pickerels (Grass Pike and Chain Pike) both 
cheek and opercle are entirely scaled. In the 
true pike (true because the first to be so named) 
the whole of the cheek and the upper half of the 
opercle is scaled while the lower part of the 
opercle is “naked.” In the muscallonge (or mus- 
callonges) the lower part of both cheek and 
opercle is without scales. These differences are 
almost an absolutely certain test. However, 
there are two specimens in the Field Museum 
at Chicago which seem to be surely pike but 
which have the scaling on the sides of the head 
like that of the muscallonge. They may be 
hybrids. 
All young pikes, pickerels, etc., are marked 
with more or less wavy cross lines or bars. As 
they get older most of them lose this and be¬ 
come more or less spotted. One, the grass pike, 
also known as little pickerel, banded pickerel 
and snake never loses this juvenile marking. The 
only changes are that as the fish gets older the 
cross bands become narrower, more crooked and 
more numerous. This little fish has been sepa¬ 
rated into two species ( Esox americanus and 
Esox vermiculatus ) mainly because the two 
groups were supposed to be separated by the 
Alleghany Mountains. However, there is little 
difference (it only appears in averages) between 
specimens from Massachusetts and those from 
Lake Ontario while there is quite a uniform 
change as we follow the group down the coast 
to Florida, around the Gulf to Texas and up 
the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. 
In clear water and among the grass or water 
weeds the grass pike is the most vivid green 
while the light streaks seem like patterns cast 
by the waves. One must have keen eyes to see 
him at all. He seems like a bit of some water 
plant. In muddy water the green color becomes 
more yellow. This fish seldom exceeds a foot 
in length or a pound in weight. 
The chain pike, also known as pickerel and 
Jack is larger than the grass pike but still is a 
small member of the family. The largest one I 
have seen was about thirty inches in length and 
three pounds in weight. It was bought of a 
fish dealer in Washington, D. C., and is now in 
the U. S. Museum. There are rumors of speci¬ 
mens weighing as much as ten pounds which are 
said to have been taken in some of the New 
Jersey lakes. The color is bright green or more 
or less brassy with the sides covered with spots 
so large that the dark color is reduced to narrow 
lines, which resemble a network. This has given 
the fish its name ( Esox reticulatus). 
The chain pike is found in the “Finger Lakes” 
of Central New York and from Maine around 
the coast and up the Mississippi River into Ar¬ 
kansas. In the coastal streams this does not 
usually get up so far into the small cold spring 
brooks as the grass pike but both of them are 
often found in quite small streams. One stream 
which flows into the Eastern Branch a mile or 
so above Bladensburg, Md., rises a few miles 
back in the hills and one or both of these spe¬ 
cies can be found in it where it is little larger 
than some of the New England trout brooks. 
The pike, pickerel, Great Northern pike, etc. 
(Esox lucius), is more silvery in color than the 
pickerels. The sides are usually spotted much 
as in the chain pike but the spots are smaller 
and the dark interspaces do not give the ap¬ 
pearance of a network. Occasionally specimens 
are found which have the spots running together 
to form cross bars. A most excellent picture 
of this fish was published in the August, 1915, 
issue of Forest and Stream. A very good photo¬ 
graph is also published on page 700 of the De¬ 
cember, 1915, issue. 
This fish i.s found entirely around the world 
in fresh waters north of about 40 degrees north 
latitude. A careful study of many specimens 
shows no differences by which we can separate 
Great Lakes pike from those of Alaska, Eng¬ 
land, France, Siberia or Switzerland. 
The muscallonge ( Esox masquinongy ) is black 
spotted instead of light spotted. This form is 
found in the Great Lakes and Eastern Canada. 
In Chautauqua Lake and the Ohio River is 
found a variety called by some scientists Esox 
ohiensis which has the spots running together to 
form cross bars. In the lakes of Wisconsin and 
Minnesota is another variety which is unspotted 
or has only dark shades along the sides. This 
has been named Esox immaculatus. 
The pike and muscallonge attain a great weight. 
Well authenticated records of forty pound pike 
are available while it seems sure that muscal¬ 
longe weighing at least eighty pounds have been 
taken. 
