12 THE PIKES: DISTRIBUTION AND COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE. 



Spawning. — In referring of the Wisconsin fish Nevins (1901) 

 wrote: "The breeding places of the muskellunge are where the logs, 

 stumps, and driftwood are thickest, in shallow water or flowage 

 where dead hmbs, logs, and brush have accumulated as results of 

 flooding for logging purposes or otherwise." 



Bean (1908) stated that the Chautauqua muskellunge begins to 

 spawn a few days after the ice is out and continues until the latter 

 part of April and that it spawns in comparatively shallow water 

 from 10 to 15 feet deep. He said that the fish does not resort to 

 gravelly bottoms like many other fish but to mud, usually going 

 into bays. 



The following communication "was reported in the proceedings 

 of the Boston Society of Natm'al History in 1854: 



Dr. Biiruet (1854) stated on the authority of Prof. Ackley, of Cleveland, that the 

 "muskalonge" {Esox nohilior) is known to perform an act of copulation in fecundating 

 the eggs of the female. The female turning on her side offers her abdomen to the 

 contact of the male, who, after taking a circuit, swims against her with considerable 

 force. The female then retires and deposits her eggs in the sand, after which the 

 process is repeated. Dr. Cabot thought that the object of the act in question might 

 be to press the ova from the female just as they were about to be extruded. He has 

 seen male and female suckers (Catostomus bostoniensis) side by side in close contact, 

 during the breeding season, probably for a similar purpose. Dr. Durkee had noticed 

 the same thing in the habits of the trout. 



ARTIFICIAL CULTURE, 



Only the State fish commissions of New York and Wisconsin seem 

 to have made any determined effort to artificially propagate, the 

 muskellunge. 



New York was first to undertake such operations, chiefly at 

 Chautauqua Lake, and later Wisconsin carried on the work at the 

 Minocqua hatchery. 



In order to get the breeding fish. Bean (1908) stated, the pound 

 nets are set at a number of places near Bemus Point as soon as the 

 ice leaves the lake. 



He stated that the males are smaller than the females and very 

 httle milt suflices to fertilize a large number of eggs. A female 

 weighing 35 pounds yielded 255,000 eggs, and the eggs are about one- 

 eleventh of an inch in diameter and 74,000 to the quart measure. 

 They are semibuoyant and not adhesive. 



Under favorable circumstances about 97 per cent of the impreg- 

 nated eggs have been hatched. In the early experiments with 

 artificial culture some eggs were hatched in 15 days with a water 

 temperature of 55° F. The fry when first hatched are very small 

 and quite helpless. The yolk sack is absorbed in about 15 days in 

 water at 55° F. 



a Note the similarity of this description with Smitt's and Benecke's statement relating to the pike. 



