THE MASCALONGE IN WISCONSIN WATERS. 201 



being quite irregular all over the sides, without any apparent 

 system; the dorsal fin is marked the same. 



In the spotted variety the spots are also irregularly placed 

 and the intervening space partially filled by transverse bars, 

 the dorsal fin marked with distinctive round black spots, 

 exactly the same as in the common Gar. 



The "Esox Immaculatus" has no distinctive marks, the back 

 being dark green, which color extends down the sides, fading, 

 as it extends downward, into a greenish yellow where it blends 

 with the white on the belly. These distinctive marks are on 

 the barred and spotted specimens when very small, not over 

 two or three inches long, which shows that they are different 

 in marking, at least, from the moment of leaving the egg or 

 nearly so. These three varieties are found together, and in 

 fishing for them one is as likely to catch one kind as another. 

 In size and proportions there is no perceptible difference in 

 the three, and in the spring while they are spawning, they 

 are found together at the same time and place, which would 

 go to show that they are really of one family, for the spotted 

 male is as likely to be found with a barred female as with a 

 spotted one, or with an "Esox Immaculatus," so called. 

 Nature is not to be disputed, and whatever she does she does 

 correctly. 



Admitting then that there are these three varieties of fish in 

 these waters, it would go to show that, while apparently sepa- 

 rated species, they are all of the same family. It may be that 

 away back in the past during some very high waters, some 

 of the St. Lawrence variety got over into the Mississippi 

 waters and mating with Esox Immaculatus produced a hybrid 

 in the Spotted and Barred Mascalonge, and that nature, for 

 some inscrutable reason, has kept up these markings in dif- 

 ferent individuals. 



Pisciculture is comparatively (in my humble opinion) in its 

 infancy, and no doubt these facts will eventually be accounted 

 for. We already know that fish can, and have been hybri- 



