Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/526

 510 PIKE from the 13th to the 15th century it was so rare in England that the price was fixed bylaw, and was generally much higher than for salmon or turbot. The pike is very strong, active, and fierce ; it darts from its reedy cover with ex- treme velocity, swallowing other fish, water rats, and even small aquatic birds ; Lacepede calls it the shark of the fresh waters ; it spares not its own species, and devours its young and even the remains of decomposing carcasses. Wonderful stories have been told regarding the gigantic size and extreme longevity of the pike, and we can readily conceive that it may attain a weight of 40 or 50 Ibs. and an age of 100 years, where food is abundant and anglers absent. Its flesh is well flavored and easy of digestion. Cuvier, Richardson, and others have asserted that this species occurs also in the great Ameri- can lakes; but on the general principle that the animals of America and Europe, with the exception of the arctic fauna, though nearly allied, have not been found identical species, this may be reasonably doubted ; the fish de- scribed from America as E. lucius is proba- bly the first of the species noticed below, or else one of the many as yet undescribed. The common lake pike of America (E. estor, Lesueur) attains a length of 3 ft. ; the back is deep greenish brown, the sides with numerous rounded and oblong pale yellowish spots, and the abdomen white ; the fins are reddish yel- low, marbled with blackish and deep green, the caudal large and lunated ; it is found in the great northern lakes. The muscalonge or maskinonge (E. nobilior, Thompson) of Lake Ohamplain is larger and rarer, and much better for the table, always commanding a higher price than the lake pickerel, though the latter is often erroneously called muscalonge ; the lower half of the cheek is without scales, which is not the case in E. estor. Mr. Thompson (in his appendix to the " History of Vermont," 1853) spells the name masquallonge, deriving it from masque (face) and allonge (elongated), an epithet given to it and other pikes by the French Canadians. This may be distinguished from the lake pickerel by the nearly black color of the back, the bluish gray sides with dark brown rounded markings, its grayish white abdomen tinged with ruddy, its more robust proportions, shorter head, flatter face, and wider jaws ; it attains a length of more than Common Pike (Esox reticulatus). 4 ft., and a weight of 40 Ibs. Agassiz describes a large pike from Lake Superior, in his narra- tive, under the name of E. ~boreus. The com- mon pike of the northern states, the long or Bhovel-nosed pickerel (E. reticulatus, Lesueur), attains a length of 1 to 2 ft. ; the colors vary I green above and golden yellow on the sides, with irregular dark longitudinal lines united into imperfect reticulations ; lower parts white, flesh-colored on the throat; a black vertical band beneath the eye ; dorsal and caudal fins greenish black, the others flesh-colored. This caught at all seasons, even through the ice ; it is taken generally with a hook, baited with a frog's leg, small fish, or any white substance moved rapidly over the surface of the water ; it is also speared through holes in the ice, or from boats to which it is attracted by bright lights. It is a very rapid swimmer, voracious, and strong ; like other species it remains ap- parently motionless in the water watching an opportunity to dart upon its prey, which con- sists of any fish which it can possibly swallow, the spiny perch in most cases excepted ; while j the body remains suspended, there is an inces- sant motion of the last few rays of the dorsal and anal fins, especially the former, with a ro- tary movement of the pectorals, and occasion- ally of the ventrals and caudal ; these forces I maintain such an exact equilibrium that the fish does not move in the water. The trout pickerel, or short-nosed pickerel (E.fasciatus, De Kay), is commonly somewhat smaller ; the general color is dark greenish, with about 20 narrow blackish brown bands, not forming a network ; the throat stained with fuliginous ; j the body is proportionately stouter and the I snout shorter than in the preceding species. I This species is found generally in the pickerel I weed or in water bushes (cepJialanthus occi- dentalis) ; it is taken at all seasons, but rarely in the deep-water channel like the long-nosed species; it takes the bait eagerly, and makes back into the shallow coverts whence it darted ; it bites at any time of day, and whether the bait be at or beneath the surface, moving slow or fast ; it is more voracious, if possible, than the E. reticulatus, an individual being fre- quently landed after having been several times drawn partly out of water; it has been known to take the hook with the tail of a half digest- ed fish visible in its mouth. Any one who has seen pickerel dart upon fish in an aquarium, and witnessed the force with which they strike the bottom, will perceive what an admirable fender the prominent lower jaw makes; it is frequently much lacerated by violent contact with the bottom, without the upper jaw suf- fering at all. The name of pike is sometimes given to the long-jawed marine fish of the al- lied genus belone (Cuv.) ; in this the head and body are very much elongated, the latter cov- ered with very minute scales; the long jaws are straight, narrow, pointed, and armed with numerous small teeth. The B. truncata (Le- sueur), called the long-jawed or gar pike, is from 1 to 2 ft. long, of a light greenish color above and silvery beneath, with a dark band extending from above the pectorals to the ori- gin of the dorsal ; the body is slender, and the
 * in different localities, but in most the body is
 * is everywhere valued for the table, and is