192 The Scyphophori, Haplomi, and Xenom1 
or frog or insect as comes within its range, and swallowing it 
at one gulp. Sometimes a striped snake, bound for greener 
meadows across the stream, ends its undulatory progress in 
the same receptacle.” 
As food-fishes, all the Esocide rank high. Their flesh is 
white, fine-grained, disposed in flakes, and of excellent flavor. 
The finest of the Esocid@, a species to be compared, as a 
grand game fish, with the salmon, is the muskallunge (Esox 
masquinongy). Technically this species may be known by 
the fact that its cheeks and opercles are both naked on the 
lower half. It may be known also by its great size and by its 
Fra. 151.—Muskallunge, Psox masquinongy Mitchill. Ecorse, Mich. 
color, young and old being spotted with black on a golden- 
olive ground. 
The muskallunge is found only in the Great Lake region, 
where it inhabits the deeper waters, except for a short time 
in the spring, when it enters the streams to spawn. It often 
reaches a length of six feet and a weight of sixty to eighty 
pounds. It is necessarily somewhat rare, for no small locality 
would furnish food for more than one such giant. It is, says 
Hallock, “a long, slim, strong, and swift fish, in every way 
formed for the life it leads, that of a dauntless marauder.”’ 
A second species of muskallunge, Esov olhiensis, unspotted 
but vaguely cross-barred, occurs sparingly in the Ohio River 
and the upper Mississippi Valley. It is especially abundant 
in Chautauqua Lake. 
The pike (Esox luctus) is smaller than the muskallunge, and 
is technically best distinguished by the fact that the opercles 
are naked below, while the cheeks are entirely scaly. The 
spots and cross-bars in the pike are whitish or yellowish, and 
always paler than the olive-gray ground color. It is the most 
