MU3KALL0NGE. 917 



The Pike is a gamey fish, taking the hook readily. Fishing for it 

 through the ice, when the skating is good, is considered an exhilarating 

 pastime. 



Prof. Cope observes : " For ourselves we do not join in the condemna- , 

 tion visited on the Pike by some, and have a liking for its flesh. If its 

 increase can be restrained instead of favored, in waters which produce 

 the best species, it will cease to inflict much injury by its voracious 

 habits, for it naturally haunts still or grassy waters, where it devours 

 fishes inferior to itself, as Eels, and Cat-fish, and frogs. On the other 

 hand, we do not think the Pike needs any protection, as he has many 

 natural advantages in the struggle for life ; but he should not be de- 

 stroyed except for the table." (Kept. Fish Commr. Penn. for 1879-1880, 

 107.) 



110. Esox KOBiLioR Thompson. 



MuskallODge ; Mascalons^e ; IHaskinong^e; Great Pike. 



" Esox matquinongy Mitchill " (Qaoted, " Miiror, 1824, 297," bnt it is not there ; I cannot 



find the desoription anywhere). 

 Esox estor, Richardson, Fanna Bor.-Amer., ii, 127. — Kirtland, Bost. Jonrn. Nat. Hist., 



V, 338, and of several writers (not of LeSaenr, Jonrn. Acad. N»t. Sci. Phila , i, 1818, 



413 ; nor of Guntheb, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mns., vi, 228, E. lucius). 

 Esox noHlior, Thompson, Bost. Jonrn. Nat. Hist,, 1850, 163, 173, 205. — Cope, Proc. Aoad. 



Nat. Sci. Phila., 1865, 79.— Jordan, Ball. U. S Nat. Mus., x, 54; Maa. Vert., 2d Ed. 



266, and of all late writers. 



Description —Body elongate ; the general form as in E. lucius, but the head rather 

 larger ; eye about midway in head ; interorbital space transversely concave, with a 

 prominent middle ridge; maxillary reaching to opposite middle of orbit ; lower half of 

 cheeks and opercles soaleless, the scaly region about as -wide as the eye and bounded by 

 an irregular line running parallel with the profile ; color dark-gray, sides with round, 

 dark spots of a grayish-black hue, nearly the color of the back on a ground color of 

 grayish- silvery ; belly white; fins black spotted; head 3f ; depth 6; D. 17; A. 15 ; V. 

 .12 : B. usually 18 ; Lat. 1. 150. Length 3 to 6 feet or more, by far the largest of the Pikes, 

 and the largest game-fish of American fresh waters. 



Habitat, entire Great Lake Region and lakes of British America, seldom ascending 

 rivers except to spawn Said to occur sometimes in the Ohio River, bnt we have no 

 certain inf jrmation of its capture there. 



Diagnosis. — This species may at once be known by being dark-spotted on 

 a lighter ground color. Most writers who have mentioned it have con- 

 founded it with the Common Pike, although Dr. Kirtland (I. c.) has well 

 pointed out the difference. 



" The ground color on the sides of the Muskallunge is always light, a 

 mixture of golden and silvery luster, maculated with dark oblong or 

 roundish spots, while on the other the ground coloring consists of dark 



