964 | FISHES—PERCIDZ. 
the highest and coolest waters that will float him. It possesses great 
activity and strength, and is a ravenous destroyer of perch and 
other species. Were it not so superior in every way to all others, 
this habit might condemn it; as it is, we regard it as one of the best 
species we possess. In the South it is eagerly bought, and forms the 
principal table fish for the various places of resort, where it can be ob- 
tained.” (Cope, Rept. Comm. Fish, Penn., 1881, 128.) 
In Ohio this is one of the most important food fishes. Great numbers 
are annually taken in Lake Erie and shipped to various parts of the 
Kast and South. 2 ° 
Description of var. salmoneum.—The body is shorter, thicker, and deeper, with slenderer 
caudal peduncle, the diameter of which is not much greater than that of the large eye; 
the mouth is smaller, the maxillary not reaching quite to the posterior margin of the 
pupil, 3 in head; the eye is larger, its diameter equal to the length of the snout or that of 
the preopercle; the lower jaw is slightly included ; the dorsal spines are evidently consid- 
erably lower than in S. vitreum, the longest about equal to the distance from the snout to a 
point just short of hinder margin of orbit, about 24 in head ; the coloration is similar to 
that of S. viirewm, but the adult is bluer or greener, with scarcely any of the brassiness 
characteristic of the latter species; the coloration of the fins is darker, and there are 
traces of a blackish horizontal band along the dorsal in addition to the large black blotch 
en the hinder rays; young specimens (from Ohio River) are more silvery, with traces of 
faint black bars along the back; fin-rays, dorsal XIV—1, 20; anal Il, 13; lateral line with 
95 scales; opercular spine single, as in S. vitreum; cheeks largely naked; pyloric ceca 
three, large, longer than stomach, as in the preceding variety ; sizo much less than that 
of S. vitreum. The largest specimens seen by me were about fourteen inches in length. 
Habitat, Lake Erie, Ohio River, and southward to Georgia. 
This variety is said to frequent only bayous and mlets, not being taken in the 
deeper waters of the lakes, where S. vitreum especially abounds. It also reaches a 
smaller size, according to Mr. Klippart, who asks, ‘‘ Why does the Blue Pike frequent 
the bayous and get to be no more than twelve to fifteen inches in length, and to weigh 
not to exceed two or three pounds, if it is identical with the wall-eyed Pike which fre- 
quents the deep waters of the lake, and attains a length of three feet and a weight of 
eighteen to twenty pounds?” This species, according to Mr. Klippart, is, at the Lake 
Erie fisheries, split aud salted with the Sauger (S. canadense), the two together being 
known to the eommercial world as ‘‘ Pickerel No. 2,” and bringing about two-thirds the 
price ef Pickerel No. 1 (S. vitreum). 
Genus 71. AMMOCRYPTA. Jordan. 
Pleurolepis, AGAssiz, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., i, 1863, 5 (preoccupied among Fessil 
Ganoids). 
Ammocrypta, JORDAN, Bull. U. 8. Nat. Mus., x, 1877, 5. 
Type, Ammocrypta beani, Jordan. 
Ktymology, ammos, sand; krupios, concealed. 
Description.—Body slender and elengate, sub-cylindrical, pellucid in life; head slen- 
der ; mouth rather wide, terminals herizontal, the lower jaw included; premaxillaries 
very protractile; teeth on the vomer; scales thin, ctenoid, little imbricated, present 
