94 FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Names.—The name of this giant pike is apparently derived from the 
Ojibwa or the Cree Indians, it is variously spelled and its meaning 1s 
uncertain, although the. roots, according to Mr. H. W. Henshaw, are 
probably mask (ugly) and kinongé (fish). In the books it appears as 
muscalonge, muskellunge, muskallunge, mascalonge and maskinonge— 
all variations of the same term. Some writers style it the great pike, 
and by others it is confused with the common pike (£. luctus). Pro- 
fessor Cope mentions also the name blue pike. 
Distribution.—The mascalonge is recorded by Professor Cope from 
Conneaut Lake, Crawford county, Pa., the specimen measuring sey- 
enteen inches in circumference behind the eyes. It is found occasion- 
ally in the Ohio Valley. The species, however, is most abundant in the 
Great Lake region. In Lake Erie favorite localities are Dunkirk and 
Barcelona, N. Y., Erie, Pa., and Mills Grove, Ohio. The northern limit 
of the fish is not definitely fixed. 
Size.—It is recorded that in 1865 Mr. Schultz caught a mascalonge 
at Milwaukee weighing one hundred pounds. In 1864 Mr. Fred Alvord 
claimed to have taken an eighty-five-pound specimen in Maumee Bay. 
The average length of the species is about three feet, and there is 
‘yeason to believe that a length of eight feet is sometimes reached. In- 
dividuals weighing fifty pounds are moderately common. With the ex- 
ception of the lake trout and some of the salmon this is undoubtedly 
the largest game fish in the United States. 
Habits.—The fish seem not to be gregarious, but occur usually in 
pairs. Their food consists mainly of smaller fishes and their voracity is 
notorious. In the spawning season in small rivers falling into Lake 
Simcoe, Richardson states that they feed upon small fishes and upon 
gelatinous green balls which grow on the sides of banks under the 
water. 
Spawning takes place in the spring. In Chautauqua Lake, New 
York, Mr. Monroe Green and Mr. Jonathan Mason obtained the eggs in 
April and May, 1890, and these were artificially hatched. A large fe- 
male yielded sixty thousand eggs. With the water at the temperature 
of 40° to 46° very few of the eggs were developed, but when it neared 
60° in May better results were secured. On May 27 seventy-five thou- 
sand young fish were planted in the lake. The eggs were hatched in a 
box suspended about four feet from the bottom in eighteen feet of 
water. 
Uses and Capture.—This is an excellent food fish, but not common 
enough to have much commercial importance. Asa game fish it has 
few superiors. The spoon bait is very effective in the capture of mas- 
calonge, and live fishes are extensively used. A correspondent of Land 
and Water describes a singular and successful lure made from a young 
brown calf’s tail, through the center of which the shank of the hook was 
passed and fastened to a swivel. 
