The Pike Family 129 



About 1890 I donated to the Cincinnati Society 

 of Natural History a specimen from Lake Erie; 

 and in 1892 I donated to the United States Na- 

 tional Museum two specimens from Lake Erie, 

 and one from a tributary of the Muskingum River, 

 in Ohio. All of these Ohio fish were from eighteen 

 inches to two feet long, and all showed similar 

 markings, being profusely covered with round 

 black spots from an eighth to a quarter of an 

 inch in diameter. Where the spots become dif- 

 fused, and the bands are inclined to spread and 

 coalesce, they are always more distinct toward the 

 tail. In a mascalonge of less than a foot in length 

 the spots are very black, very round, and quite 

 small, not exceeding a sixth or an eighth of an inch 

 in diameter. 



Various appellations have been bestowed on 

 the mascalonge to denote its rapacity, as the 

 shark, wolf, or tiger of the waters, all of which are 

 well merited by that fierce marauder. It subsists 

 entirely on fish, frogs, snakes, and even the young 

 of aquatic mammals and water fowl. Nothing in 

 the shape of food comes amiss to him. He is 

 solitary in his habits, lying concealed among the 

 water plants and rushes at the edges of the 

 streams or channels and along the shores, or 



