FISIIKKIKS, GAME AND FORESTS. 



123 



been taken with different markings, some with round brown spots and some with 

 blotches almost like vertical bands, as shown in the colored plate. 



The State hatches upwards of 3,000,000 of mascalonge annually, and there are 

 demands for them for waters in which it would be unwise to plant them, and all such 

 applications are denied. Mascalonge are hatched in boxes sunk in the lake and 

 provided with double bottoms and tops, so that the eggs may not be eaten through 

 the wire meshes by other fish. About 97 per cent, of impregnated eggs are hatched, 

 and with the water at 55 degrees Fahr. they hatch in about fifteen days, and it 

 requires about the same length of time to absorb the umbilical sac of the fry. The 

 fry when first hatched are extremely helpless, and are a prey apparently to every 

 living thing in the water. The ovaries of a 39 1 / 2 pound mascalonge weighed five 



=, pounds, and one female of 35 pounds yielded 265,000 



eggs, although all of her eggs were not obtained. In 

 spawning these large fish it is a rare thing, compara- 

 tively, to injure one of them. 



The pike is commonly called pickerel in this State, 

 but by referring to the colored drawing, it will be seen 

 that there is a marked difference between the two fish. 

 The pike grows to a weight of fifty pounds and more, 

 as one was recorded from Ireland the present year of fifty-four pounds in weight. 

 Our pike and the European pike are the same. The cheek and gill covers of 

 the pike shown in Fig. 2, will explain how the scales are placed ; they cover the 

 cheek and part of the gill cover. The pike is the fish sometimes called the Great 



Northern Pike, although a claim was made a few 

 years ago for this title for the unspotted masca- 

 longe. 



The pickerel, proper, is a small fish as compared 



with the pike, as it averages in weight from one and a 



half to two and a half pounds, and one of five pounds 



is a very large fish. Fig. 3. will show how the scales 



are placed on cheek and gill covers, extending over 



both. An examination of the colored plates of the 



mascalonge, pike and pickerel will show the scales exactly as here given in the three 



figures. There are two colored plates of the pickerel, one of a fish from a pond in 



Massachusetts and one from a fish taken in the upper Hudson River where they were 



introduced within the past ten years. 

 10 



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Fig. 2. 

 Part of Cheek and Gill Covers of a Pike. 



Fig- 3- 

 Part of Cheek and Gill Coversof a Pickerel 



