914 FISHES—ESOCID.. 
Esox, LINNZUS.—Branchiostegals 14 to 16; cheeks scaly ; lower half of opercle bare; 
species of rather large size, light spotted on rather dark ground (species, lucius), 
Muscalongus, JorDAN.—Branchiostegals 17 to 19; lower half of cheeks as well as 
opercies, bare; species reaching an immense size, black-spotted on a lighter ground 
(species, nobilior). i 
108. HKscox saLMoneus Rafinesque. 
Little Pickerel. 
Esox salmoneus, RAFINESQUE, Ich. Oh., 70.—JORDAN, Bull. Buff. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1876, 
96 —JOKDAN, Man. Vert., 2d Ed., 1878, 267, and of late writers. 
Picorellus salmoneus, JORDAN, Man. Vert., Ist Ed., 256.  ~ 
Esox vermiculatus, LESUEUR, Cuv. and Val., Hist. Nat. des Poiss., xviii, 333. 
- Esox lineatus, LESUEUR, Cav. and Val., l. c., xviii, 335. 
Esox lugubrosus, LEEUEUR, Cuv. and Val., Xviii, 338. 
Esox umbrosus, KIRTLAND, Cleveland Annals of Science, 1855, 79.—Coprs, Proc. Phila. 
Acad. Sci., 1665,.79; Cyp. Penn. (Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc.), 1866, 468, 
Esox cypho, Copxr, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1465, 78.—GUuUNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. 
Mus, vi, 230.—JorDANn, Man. Vert., 2d Ed., 267, and of most writers. 
Esox porosus, COPE, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1866, 408. 
Description.— Body moderately stout, somewhat compressed ; head rather short, {he eye 
being exactly in the middle of the head ; eye large, less than three times in snout, about 
six in head ; cheeks and opercle entirely scaly ; caudal well forked ; color green or gray- 
ish; sides with many curved streaks, sometimes forming bars, but more usually form- 
ing marmorations or reticulations, the color extremely variable, sometimes quite plain ; 
sides of head usually variegated; a dark bar downward from eye and one forward; 
base of caudal sometimes mottled; other fins usually plain; head 34; depth 5-6; D. 11; 
A. 11; Lat. 1.105, Smallest of all the Pikes. The length about a foot. 
Habitat, entire Ohio Valley and in streams tributary to the Great Lakes from the 
South; also in the Upper Miszissippi Valley. 
Diagnesis.—From the other Ohio Pikes, this species may be known by 
its entirely scaly opercles, and its small size and slender form. 
The nearly related Eastern species, Hsox reticulatua, LeSueur, the com- 
mon Pickerel of the seaboard States differs in having the snout longer, - 
and the branchiostegals more numerous, 14 or 15 in number. 
Habits.—This little fish is found throughout the State, but is especially 
abundant in the ponds and streams tributary tothe Ohio. Itswarms in 
the spring in ponds formed by the overflow of the creeks. Thousands 
of them are destroyed yearly by the drying of such ponds. In the 
spring it accends all small streams, and it is often found in temporary 
brooks in cornfields and other unexpected places, remote from its native 
waters. People finding pickerel thus stranded often affirm stoutly that 
they “rain down.” 
This species is too emall to be of any importance as food. I have not 
seen any of more than the length of a foot. 
