CHAPTER XVI.
THE GREAT NORTHERN PICKEREL.
Esox Lucioides.—This fish is very similar to the mascallonge, so much so that it is not mentioned in most of the works on American Ichthyology, being confounded with the latter. The principal differences in appearance are, that the snout of the pickerel, the under jaw especially, is shorter and more obtuse than that of the mascallonge, the light tint of its sides is yellower, and it never attains over twenty-five pounds. The markings on the sides are somewhat different, the light, elongated spots of the pickerel, being occasionally replaced in the mascallonge by dark spots on a greyish ground, and the fin-rays are not so numerous.
Dorsal 18; Pectoral 16; Ventral 10; Anal 15 and Caudal 24.
Or, according to Professor Agassiz—
D. 21; P. 16; V. 11; A. 16; C. 17.
The principal color is dark grey, lighter on the sides than on the back.
These fish are caught in all the sluggish waters of the North, and on the same ground and at the same time with the mascallonge, and coincide with him entirely in habits and disposition. They exhibit the same ferocity, are allured by the same baits, entrapped in the same manner, and, in a culinary point of view are, if possible, inferior.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE COMMON PICKEREL.
Esox Reticulatus.—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 peculiarity. The lines are sometimes longitudinal, and but little reticulated. The fin-rays are—