106 
THE BOOK OF FISHES 
Photograph by E. R. Sanborn, New York Zoological Society 
GAR, A SURVIVAL OF EARLY FISH FORMS 
The cylindrical body, long bony snout, and certain reptilian characteristics point to the Gar being a 
surviving link with the ages. One species, the alligator gar, inhabiting our southern streams is said to 
reach a length of 20 feet. 
The Muskellunge with which we are best ac¬ 
quainted is the species belonging to Lake Chau¬ 
tauqua and the upper Ohio River system— Esox 
ohiensis. This species has long been on exhibition 
in the Aquarium, where 30-pound specimens have 
lived four or five years at a time and would have 
lived longer but for accidents to the water supply. 
Although well fed, they have occasionally attacked 
their large tank mates, inflicting serious injuries. 
It is sometimes called Barred Muskellunge. Mr. 
G. A. Winchester states that the largest specimen 
taken in Lake Chautauqua weighed 49 pounds 
Forty-pounders are taken every season, but seven 
pounds is about the average for that lake. A 
42-pound specimen was taken in Lake Chau¬ 
tauqua which had a length of 52^ inches (see page 
105). In this lake it is taken in summer by spoon 
trolling. In the autumn live baits—Suckers, 
Shiners, and Creek Chubs—are used. 
Live-bait fishing is more effective at night and 
attracts larger fish. Skittering with dead Min¬ 
nows is fairly successful in summer and both casting 
and skittering can be done over weedy areas. A 
good day’s catch would be five or six fish. The State 
hatcheryatLake Chautauqua, between 1896 and 1920, 
turned out more than 69,000,000 Muskellunge fry. 
The spawning season begins about April 20 and 
lasts three weeks. The Muskellunge spawns from 
100,000 to 300,000 eggs, which are deposited mostly 
where brush, dead limbs, and logs lie in the water. 
Another species of Muskellunge (Esox immac- 
ulatus) inhabits lakes in northern Wisconsin and 
Minnesota. 
The members of the Pike family are readily 
distinguished by the scales on cheeks and gill 
covers. In the Muskellunge the cheek and lower 
half of gill cover are without scales; in the Pike 
the cheek is entirely scaled, the lower half of the 
gill cover being without scales; in the Pickerels 
cheek and gill cover are both fully scaled. 
COMMON WHITEFISH (Coregonus 
clupeiformis) 
(For illustration see Color Plate^ 122) 
One of the most abundant and important food- 
fishes of the North is the Common Whitefish, 
which inhabits the Great Lakes and some other 
large lakes of the United States and British 
America. 
I'here are several species of the genus, mostly 
of restricted range, inhabiting lakes in the North¬ 
west as far as Alaska, but the Common Whitefish 
and the Menominee Whitefish (Coregonus quadri- 
lateralis)^ also abundant in the Great Lakes, far 
exceed the others in commercial value. 
The Common Whitefish is in the main the species 
on which the “Whitefish” industry is based. The 
catch in 1919 exceeded 6,000,000 pounds, or about 
half the quantity taken in 1890, so heavy is the 
drain made upon this food resource. The White- 
fish catch along the Canadian shores of the Lakes 
being equal to that of the United States, we may 
double the above figures. 
The Whitefish fortunately responds readily to 
artificial methods of propagation, and there are 
