220 The Life Story of the Fish 



fisherman's equipment. It would protect him against waste 

 time, waste effort, and unnecessary disappointment. For when 

 he found the water below 50 degrees, he could with a clear 

 conscience take down his rod and quit work.^ 



MUSKELLUNGE 



This fish can be spelled in almost any way, and authority 

 can be cited to back the choice. The above form is used here 

 because it has been adopted as the official common name by 

 a committee of ichthyologists appointed for the purpose. To 

 me it has always seemed that maskinonge was the most 

 logical spelling from both the practical and scientific point 

 of view: the Indian words mas kinonge mean "great pike," 

 and the scientific name of the fish is Esox masquinongy. The 

 argument in favor of the prettier spelling mascalonge or 

 maskallongey based on the theory that the early French set- 

 tlers called the fish masque allongee ("long face"), is un- 

 convincing. Of the family Esocidae five species are native to 

 this country: three pickerels, muskellunge, and pike. The 

 last-named, strangely enough, occurs in Europe also. It 

 seems unlikely that the voyageurs would have called our 

 gigantic relative of the pike by any other than the latter's 

 French name, brochet. 



The family is a primitive one. The ventral fins are well 

 behind the pectorals, the fin rays are all soft, the scales 

 are cycloid, and the air-bladder has a connection with the 

 gullet. The five species look much alike, but differ in size. 

 There are also more exact anatomical distinctions. In the 

 pickerels the opercle, the bony plate over the gills, is com- 



^ Certain anglers have recently reported occasional catches of large 

 bass in winter. They advance the thought that it is only the smaller bass 

 which hibernate completely, and that the big ones do have feeding periods 

 throughout the cold season. To what extent if any this applies to brief 

 cold spells which occur during the warm season is not known. 



