HABITS OF THE MASCALONGE. 223 



He bites daringly at a dead bait played with spinning-tackle, 

 or even with a simple gorge and trolling-hooks. He is, more- 

 over, readily taken with that murderous instrument, the spoon, 

 or even by a bait of tin or red cloth, made to play quickly 

 through the water. 



Before passing to the next species, I cannot but pause to 

 notice a strange error of nomenclature, in Mr. Brown^s com- 

 prehensive little volume, " The American Angler^s Manual," 

 to which I have alluded before, by which he transforms the 

 term Esox, the specific name of every member of the Pike 

 Family, as assigned by Linnseus, into the Essex, which he 

 appears to conceive a distinctive term peculiar to the Mas- 

 calonge, which he calls "the Essex or Muscalinga of our 

 western lakes." I note this error, not from any desire to 

 underrate a useful and valuable little book, but merely to guard 

 against its adoption by anglers in general. 



