ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1057 



MUSKALLUNGE (Lucius Masquinongy) 



Arctic Circle in Alaska, and they grow still 

 larger. With salmon, pike, yellow spotted 

 trout and whitefish fresh from the icy Kowak 

 River, our explorers turned to the grayling 

 as the finest of all the fishes brought into 

 camp. ^Ye used to see them in good sized 

 schools in the Arctic streams and they had 

 none of the wildness of trout, but lingered 

 in the shallow water in full sight of the 

 anglers. 



The Government hatchery at Bozeman has 

 been in operation since 1891, and many 

 millions have been placed in suitable northern 

 waters. There are three kinds of grayling in 

 North America ; the Arctic species is Thy- 

 mattus signifer, the Michigan fish T. tricolor, 

 and the western form T. Montanus. It is 

 no longer common in Michigan, but may be 

 re-established by artificial propagation. 



The two southern forms are geographically 

 isolated from the northern, and are doubtless 

 remnants from the post-Glacial range of the 

 northern species. 



The grayling of England and Northern 

 Europe | Thymallus vulgaris) was known to 

 Isaac Walton, who says "Some think that 



he feeds on water thyme, and smells of it." 

 To this belief the fish evidently owes its 

 name Thymallus. 



Our graylings spawn in April and May, 

 the eggs hatch in from nine to seventeen 

 days at temperatures of 50 to 60 degrees, 

 and the yolk sac is absorbed in eight or ten 

 days, when the young fishes rise from the 

 bottom of the hatching troughs and begin 

 to feed. The number of eggs deposited 

 varies from three thousand to four thousand. 



Many of the eggs received from Bozeman 

 failed to hatch, doubtless owing to the fact 

 that they were treated like trout eggs and 

 placed in hatching troughs. Had they been 

 placed in glass hatching jars, as is done at 

 Bozeman, and kept in motion by water 

 admitted from below, we might have hatched 

 a larger proportion of the eggs received. 



The Aquarium has at present nearly one 

 thousand tropical fishes representing about 

 one hundred different species. They make 

 an exhibition of life from the coral reefs that 

 is full of color and movement. 



