May 6, 1899.] 
FORJiST AND -STREAM. 
361 
variety in Chautauqua Lake. On the 'barred lunge' the 
bars are transverse and commence near the back and 
extend to the edge of the belly, that is to say, some of 
them do, while others go only part way, being quite irreg- 
ular all over the sides, without any apparent system; 
the dorsal fin is marked the same, 
"In the spotted variety the spots are also irregularly 
placed, and the intervening space partially filled by trans- 
verse bars, the dorsal fin marked with distinctive round 
black spots, exactly the same as in the common gar. 
"The 'Bsox immaculatus' has no distinctive mark, the 
back being dark green, which color extends down the 
sides, fading, as it extends downward, into a greenish 
yellow, where it blends with the white on the belly. 
"These distinctive marks are on the barred and spotted 
specimens Avhen very small, not over 2 or 3in. long, which 
shows that they are different in marking, at least, from 
the moment of leaving the egg or nearly so. 
"These three varieties are found together, and in fish- 
The name mascalonge, or maskinonge, appears to signify 
"deformed pike" or "spotted pike"; but we may never 
know the original orthography and meaning of the des- 
ignation first applied to the fish. Mr, Chambers, in his 
book of "The Ouananiche," says: 
"The original spelling of the Indian name was un- 
doubtedly 'maskinonge,' and such it is still called in the 
statutes of Canada. According to Bishop Lafleche, of 
Three Rivers, a ixcognized authority upon Indian cus- 
toms and dialects, and in his early life a devoted mission- 
ary to the Northwest, 'maskinonge' is derived from 
mashk* (deformed) and kinoj'e (a pike), and was ap- 
plied to the Esox nobUior hy the Indians, because it ap- 
peared to them a deformed or different kind of pike from 
that to which they had been accustomed." 
Dr. De Kay, in the Zoology of New York,, Fishes, 1842, 
mentions it as : "The muskellunge or maskinonge, for its 
orthography is not settled. * * * According to Le 
Sueur, the name of this fish in the Wyandot dialect is 
palate almost as long. On the tongue will be found a 
Jong patch of fine teeth, beginning in a sharp point and 
wide at the hind margin. The gills bristle in front with 
numerous clusters of short, spiny tubercles. Many of 
the teeth are depressible, facilitating the capture of the 
prey and preventing its escape. The eye is silvery white 
with a tinge of yellow, and it has a cold, calculating and 
ferocious aspect. The combination of great size, enormous 
strength and formidable dentition makes the mascalonge 
easily one of the most dangerous of the predaceous fishes 
of our fresh waters. 
No hint of the ferocity and destructive character of the 
adult mascalonge is conveyed in the appearance of the 
newly hatched young, here represented for the first time, 
and upon an enlarged scale, the actual length of the embryo 
four days after hatching being not quite yim. The speci- 
men illustrated was one of a series preserved at Chautau- 
qua Lake by Mr. Frank Redband, foreman of the Cale- 
donia Fish Hatchery. It would require a lively exercise 
THE MASCALONGE. 
ing for them one is as likely to catch one kind as an- 
other. In size and proportions there is no perceptible 
difference in the three, and in the spring, while they are 
spawning, they are found together at the same time and 
place, which would go to show that they are really of one 
family, for the spotted male is as likely to be found with a 
barred female as with a spotted one, or with an 'Esox 
immaculatus/ so called. * * * 
"It may.be that away back in the past during some very 
high waters some of the St. Lawrence variety got over 
into the Mississippi waters, and mating with 'Esox im- 
maculatus' produced a hybi-id in the spotted and barred 
mascalonge, and that nature, for some inscrutable reason, 
has kept up these markings in different individuals." 
Even in Chautauqua- Lake, according to Mr. James An- 
nin, Jr., color variation with age has been observed. Mr. 
Annin writes that Mr. Frank Redband, foreman of the 
Caledonia Hatchery, is familiar with the mascalonge dur- 
ing the spawning season only. He says all the large fish, 
above 25lbs., a.re spotted (meaning banded). If there 
Tlmhalhvcsah han." It must be remembered, however, 
that Richardson regarded Le Sueur's description of a 
supposed mascalonge as applying to the pike, and not at 
all to the mascalonge. The name maskinonge or mas- 
quinongy, was published in the Mirror by Dr. Mitchill 
in 1824. In 1815 De Witt Clinton knew the fish as the 
imiscalinga, and his account, in the first volume of the 
Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society 
of New York, published that year, is as follows: "The 
muscalinga, a species of pike, is greatly esteemed, and 
is generally caught in rivers emptying into the lakes. It 
weighs from 10 to 4olbs., and in a few instances 45lbs., 
and is generally very fat." 
Rev. Zadock Thompson, just fifty years ago, described 
the mascalonge from specimens taken in the River La- 
moille, Vermont. It was then called by the fishermen the 
masquallonge, and Thompson defined it thus : "The vul- 
gar name masquallonge appears to have been given by the 
early French settlers of Canada to the pikes and pickerels 
generally, it being a term or phrase descriptive of the 
of the imagination to forecast this puny little creature in 
the role of a "dauntless marauder" or a "mere machine 
for the assimilation of other organisms," and yet, po- 
tentially, "he is it." 
The egg of the Chautauqua Lake mascalonge is about 
i-iiin. in diameter, and 74,000 of them will fill a quart 
measure. The eggs are free, semi-buoyant, and not ad- 
hesive, although some writers say they are slightly ad- 
hesive and stick to water plants. In a fish weighing 
39/^lbs. the ovaries weighed slbs. and a 3Slb. fish has 
furnished 265,000 ripe eggs. Spawning usually begins in 
April or May, soon after the lake is free fi-om ice, and the 
season is short. It occurs in depths of 10 to 15ft. on the 
mud in the bays, or among rushes and grasses near the 
banks of streams. The eggs have usually been hatched 
in boxes with wire-cloth tops and bottoms, submerged 
from I to 4ft. below the surface, the boxes being drawn 
up daily, the covers taken off and all sediment and dead 
eggs removed. In 1898 Mr. Annin experimented with 
the eggs in Chase hatching jars, each containing about 
THE UNSPOTTED MASCALONGE. 
spawnmg 
be any difference in the mascalonge at the 
season the men did not notice it. 
About May i, 1898, Mr. Annin and Mr. Cheney in- 
spected about 130 mascalonge at Chautauqua Lake, and 
in all that num_ber did not find one of the spotted ones, 
that is, with round spots covering the entire fish, or any- 
thing like the mascalonge of the St. Lawrence. A good 
many of them were spotted near the tail, but on their sides 
they were all barred. One of the very large fish had 
neither bars nor spots, but seemed to be all of a brownish 
cast. 
From the foregoing somewhat elaborate details we are 
forced to the conclusion that no one of the three races 
of mascalonge is restricted to a single locality, but two 
or niore of them may occur at any time, and anywhere 
within the known limits of distribution. 
In Chautauqua Lake, New York, it is stated, the dark 
transverse bars on the sides are characteristic of young 
fish, and, in the female especially, they disappear at an 
early age. It is said, further, that the sexes are repre- 
sented there in the proportion of four males to one female. 
So-called mascalonge are reported in several of the inland 
lakes of New York, but it is doubtful whether they be- 
long to that species. 
The pike was so called on account of its long, slender - 
shape and pointed snout. Th? pickerel is g. 4ittle pikf . 
whole family — Masque signifying face or visage, and 
allonge, lengthened, they all having lengthened or 
elongated heads.^ In modern times this name, masqual- 
longe, has been confined by the fishermen to the species 
here described, while the other species bear the vulgar 
name of pike or pickerel, * * *" In his description of 
the mascalonge, Mr. Thompson fir^ called attention to 
the most important superficial character by which it is dis- 
tinguished from the pike and pickerels, namely, the ab- 
sence of scales on the lower half of the cheek. 
According to General I. Garrard (see Forest and 
Stream, Vol. XXVIL, p. 268) the unspotted mascalonge 
is Osh-au-wash-ko Genoshay of the Chippewas, or blue 
pike. It is not proposed to discuss further the origin 
and etymology of the name, since these matters have al- 
ready been extensively treated in this journal. 
The savage character of the mascalonge will be re- 
vealed through a glance at the size of the mouth and the 
structure of the teeth. The long jaws are armed with 
bands of strong, sharp, curved teeth, which might as well 
be called fangs. The middle of the roof of the mouth 
bears a patch of teeth nearly one-third as long as the 
head, and this is flanked on each side by a band on the 
..o* \" nii§5iQns d« diocese de Quebec, No. 
1?, April, 18p7, p, 103. 
four quarts. Apparently they worked as easily as white- 
fish eggs, but after hatching they seemed to be too weak 
to rise and go out of the jar into the receiver. The same 
difficulty has been experienced with certain trout eggs, 
but by transferring the embryos to rearing boxes or 
troughs the trouble was overcome. The mascalonge eggs 
usually hatch in fifteen or sixteen days, when the water 
temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and the yolk-sac 
is absorbed in the same length of time. The fry are 
always helpless when first hatched, but especially so when 
the hatching period is protracted. At Chautauqua Lake in 
1898, according to Mr. Annin, eggs hatched during the 
first week in May had been in the boxes over thirty days. 
The spawning fish are captured in nets, which are 
set as soon after April i as the ice leaves the lake, and 
the season usually closes in the latter part of April. Males 
are much more abundant than females on the spawning 
grounds. 
Mascalonge are not gregarious, but are often caught in 
pairs after the spawning season has passed. They are, for 
the most part, surface feeders, or they will be found along 
shallow bars where aquatic plants grow nearly to the top 
of the water. Their food sometimes consists of vegetable 
substances, but usually of smaller fishes without regard 
even to their own offspring. They frequently conceal 
themselves vnder lilypads and lie in wait for their prey, 
