152 AMERICAN FISHES. 



which are furnished with several rows of long, powerful, and exceed- 

 ingly sharp, awl-shaped teeth, the points curving slightly forward. 

 The vomer and palatine bones are covered with card-like clumps of 

 spiny teeth, as are the base of the tongue, and the pharyngeal bones. 

 The tongue itself is soft. 



The lower jaw is considerably longer than the upper ; it is armed 

 for something less than half its length with very powerful recurved 

 fangs, the two largest being in front, a little posterior to the tip of the 

 tongue. Beyond these, the lower jaw is toothless, curved upwards, 

 with sharp, horny, beak-like edges; and in these points, particularly, 

 is it distinct from the following species. 



Of the gill-covers, the preoperculum is nearly vertical, and but 

 slightly curved, the operculum much higher than it is broad, and 

 nearly four times .as high as the suboperculum, which is slightly round- 

 ed posteriorly. The branchiostegous rays are eighteen in number 



The body and head are quadrangular, flattened above, and much 

 compressed at the sides. The dorsal fin is directly above the anal, 

 the caudal powerful and deeply forked. 



The fins, according to Professor Agassiz' singularly precise mode of 

 enumeration, contain — the dorsal, twenty-two fin rays ; anal, twenty ; 

 ventral, thirteen ; pectoral, eighteen. The main part of the caudal 

 fin is divided into two somewhat unequal lobes, containing, the upper, 

 nine ; the under, eight fin-rays ; while above and below the two larger 

 lateral rays there are nine smaller rays. 



In color, it differs from the Northern Pickerel in having the general 

 tint of the body lighter than the markings. The back and upper part 

 of the sides are dark, changing from greenish blue to bluish gray, on 

 the sides, which are irregularly dashed with darker spots and splarhes. 

 When exposed to a strong light, every scale reflects bright colors, 

 which vary as the fish is moved ; but there is no fixed pale mark on 

 the tip of the scales,, as in the succeeding species. 



The Mascalonge, which owes its name to the formation of the head 

 — masque allonge, long face or snout, Canadian French — but which 

 has been translated from dialect to dialect, maskinonge, muscalunge, 

 and muscalinga, until every trace of true derivation has been lost, is 

 said to be much more common in Lakes Erie and Ontario than in the 

 more northern waters of Canada ; but this will, I fancy, prove to be 



