172 American Fisheries Society. 



lute correctness of the French orthography "maskinonge," that 

 no less an authority than Dr. James A. Henshall, the author of 

 the paper on this fish in "American Game Fishes," following the 

 nomenclature of Dr. Mitchell, as quoted by De Kay in his "Fishes 

 of New York," substitutes for nobilior, as the scientific name of 

 this particular species, masquinongy, which is about as near as it 

 is possible for English orthography to go in representing the correct 

 pronunciation of "maskinonge." Yet Dr. Henshall claims that by 

 common consent and custom the name is "mascalonge" among the 

 majority of anglers and that "mascalonge" it will be for genera- 

 tions to come. Nor does this mongrel name represent the full 

 extent of the departure from the original name. Dr. Henshall 

 mentions, among other forms, "muscalonge," "muskellunge," "mus- 

 kallonge," etc., and a variety of other spellings has been adopted 

 by other writers. "Muskellunge" — one of the forms already quoted 

 is the name employed to designate the species by Dr. G. Brown 

 Goode, in his "American Fishes," and is as far removed from the 

 original name as "winninish" is from "ouananiche." It may take 

 some time to arrive at uniformity in the spelling of Bsox nobilior's 

 familiar name, but it is encouraging to note the general conformity, 

 in recent years, to the name "ouananiche," which is the statutory 

 designation in the country in which that fish is found, and it may 

 be useful to point out that "maskinonge" is also the statutory 

 form of the name of another Canadian fish, and, like "ouananiche," 

 has in its favor the undoubted claim of priority of nomenclature. 



Dr. Tarleton H. Bean has declared in a contribution to "The 



Encyclopedia of Sport" that the priority of the Indian word "maski- 

 nonge" is well supported. Dr. Gunther, a fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and for many years keeper of the Zoological Department 

 of the British Museum, avoids altogether the word "mascalonge" 

 in his voluminous "Introduction to the Study of Fishes," and de- 

 scribes the fish as "muskellunge" of "maskhionge." 



That splendid American sportsman and angling author, Mr. 

 Genio C. Scott, admirably summed up many years ago some of the 

 reasons which compelled his use and advocacy of the orthography 

 maskinonge. In his "Fishing in American Waters," he says: 



The Ojibwa name of this fish is "maskanonja," meaning long snout. 

 When Canada was a French colony the habitants named it masque-longue, 

 signifying long visage I submit that the Ojibwa was entitled by priority 

 to the right of naming the fish ; but, as the Dominion of Canada has named 



