Jordan and F^ermann. Pishes of North America. 629 



Submenus MASCALONGUS, Jordan. 

 925. LUCIUS MASqUINONGY (Mitchill). 



(MUSKALLUNGE ; MASKINONQY ; MUSCALONGE ; GREAT PlKE.) 



Head 3 ; depth 6 ; snout 2 in head ; eye 4 to 6 in snout. B. 17 to 19 ; 

 D. 17 ; A. 15 ; scales 150. General form of the common pike, the head 

 a little larger proportionally. Cheeks naked below, as the opercles are ; 

 scaly part of cheeks variable, usually about as wide as eye ; the scales on 

 both cheeks and opercles in about 8 rows ; middle of eye midway between 

 tip of lower jaw and posterior margin of opercle. Color dark gray ; sides 

 in the typical form, with round or squarish blackish spots of varying size 

 on a ground color of grayish silvery; these sometimes obsolete (immacula- 

 tus), sometimes coalescing in bands (ohiensis); belly white ; fins spotted 

 with black. Length 4 to 8 feet. A magnificent fish, by far the largest of 

 its family, reaching a weight of 100 pounds or more; found in the Great 

 Lake region, Upper Mississippi, and northward; also occasionally taken 

 in Ohio River, frequent in Chautauqua Lake, Conneaut Lake, and other 

 clear lakes outside the Great Lake system. The typical form, var. mas- 

 quinongy, known by the black spots, is confined to the Great Lakes, their 

 outlets, and tributaries. "A long, slim, strong, and swift fish, in every 

 way fitted to the life it leads, that of a dauntless marauder." (Hallock.) 

 (Maskinonge, or Mas Jienosha,* or Mask-Kinonge, a name variously spelled, 

 applied by the Ojibway Indians to the lake pike and muskallunge. ) 



Esox masquinongy, MITCHILL, " Mirror, f 297, 1824," Lake Erie. Specimen 47 inches long and 



weighing 30 pounds. D. 21; A. 17, including rudiments; MEEK & NEWLAND, Proc. Ac. 



Nat. Sci. Phila., 1885, 372. 



Esox masquinongy (MITCHILL) KIRTLAND, Fishes of Ohio, 194, 1838, Lake Erie. 

 Esoxnolilior, THOMPSON, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., in, 1850, 163, Lake Champlain; JORDAN, 



Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., x, 54, 1877, and of most late writers; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 353J 



1883. 

 Esox nobtti*, KIRTLAND, Proc. Cleveland Ac. Sci., 1854, 84, Lake Erie; name a slip of the pen 



for Esox nobilior. 

 Esox atromaculala, "Kirtland MS." KIRTLAND, I. c., 1854, 84, under synonymy of Esox nobilis. 



Represented in the Ohio River and its tributaries by 



925a. LUCIUS MASQUINONGY OHIENSIS (Kirtland). 



Body with narrow, dark cross shades, which break up into vaguely out- 

 lined dark spots. Specimens of muskallunge from Chautauqua Lake show 

 narrow, dark crossbars, which split up into diffuse spots; fins with black 

 spots. These seem to be allied to the typical form masquinongy rather than 

 to var. immaculatus, but are somewhat different from either in coloration. 

 No constant difference in other respects is apparent. The name Esox 

 salmoneus, "White with many narrow transversal brown bands, some- 

 what curved; length 5 feet," seems to belong to this form. The name 

 salmoneuSj however, is not eligible, being preoccupied. 



Esox salmoneus, RAFINESQTJE, Amer. Monthly Mag., in, 1818, 447, Ohio,River; not Esox salmon- 

 em, MITCHILL, 1815, which is Synodus fattens. 



*See Mather, Forest & Stream, March 18, 1886. According to Mr. H. W. Henshaw, monk is 

 ugly; kinonrjf, fish, in the Ojibway dialects. 



fThis reference is given on the authority of De Kay. We have carefully searched the files of 

 the Mirror and do not find this description. The name masquinongy will, in any case, how- 

 ever, hold from the account given by Kirtland. 



