54 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY—II. 
ESOCID A. 
39. ESOX NOBILIOR, Thompson. 
? Esox masquinongy, MIrcHiLL, “ Mirror, 1824, 297 ” (not there !).* 
? Esox estor, RICHARDSON, Fauna Boreali-Americana, ili, 1836, p. 127; and of several 
authors (not of Le Sueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. i, 1818, 415). 
Esox nobilior, THOMPSON, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. iii, 1850, 163, 178, 305; and of 
recent writers generally. 
It is not quite clear why Dr. Mitchili’s name for this species should 
be set aside. Giinther remarks (Cat. Fishes Br. Mus. 1866, vi, 227), 
‘ Mitchill has counted seventeen anal rays, and therefore it is probable 
that his typical specimens belonged to this species (#. luctus) and not 
to EH. estor (nobilior), and rejects Mitchill’s name on the supposition 
that the number of rays in the Muskallunge is 20 or 21. But, in point 
of fact, the number of anal rays is 16 to 18, usually one less than in #. lu- 
cius”, instead of 3 or 4 more. Moreover, Mitchill’s specimen was about 
4feet in length and weighed 30 pounds, a size unusual for the Pike, 
although specimens even larger are occasionally taken. Mitchill sup- 
posed that the fish in his possession was the Muskallunge ; he described 
it, and named it on that supposition. 
The following description was taken from a specimen about 3 feet 
long from Ecorse, Mich. (No. 10607, National Museum), and .from three 
smaller specimens from Lake Huron :— 
Depth 6 in length; head 33; general form of FE. lucius, the head 
perhaps a trifle larger proportionally, 10 inches long in the larger speci- 
men; eye about midway in head. Interorbital space transversely con- 
cave, with a prominent middle ridge; maxillary reaching to opposite 
middle of orbit. 
Sealy part cf cheeks about as wide as eye, beginning on a level with 
the eye and running backward, its lower edge nearly parallel with the 
profile. Scaly region of opercles similar. Thé amount of squamation 
is variable within narrow limits. Eight rows of seales on cheeks and 
about the same number on opercles. Seales on lateral line 150. 
Fin-radii :—B. 18-17; i7-17; 18-19; 17-17, in four specimens. D. 
TUE UG; T1117 300 ie Anal, di 153 PEs 4s ee eee 
Color dark gray; sides with round dark spots of a grayish-black 
hue, nearly the color of the back, on a ground-color of grayish silvery 5 
* A search through the files of the Mirror for Mitchill’s description has proved un- 
successful : it is not on the page cited by Dekay. 
