THE GIANT PIKE OF LOCH KEN 13 



proportionately larger in males than in females, and Pike 

 from lakes or rivers where food is abundant and a large size 

 is often reached are smaller in the head than the occasional 

 big fish taken in ponds of no great extent. Moreover, the 

 relation of weight to length varies enormously according to 

 the season and the condition of the fish. This is strikingly 

 exemplified by three casts of Pike in the Buckland collec- 

 tion ; one, a spent fish of 20^ Ibs. caught on 1 2th May 

 1879, is very similar in all its proportions except depth and 

 girth to a ripe female of 32 Ibs. taken in Norfolk on 25th 

 March 1870; whilst between them is a fish only slightly 

 longer, but with a notably larger head ; it is very thin and 

 can scarcely have weighed more than 20 Ibs. ; it was found 

 dead in a pond at Claremont. 



In this connection the following extract from the Rev. 

 Richard Lubbock's " Fauna of Norfolk " is of interest : 

 " The largest-framed fish I ever beheld, was found in the 

 reeds on the verge of a broad in the summer of 1822 ; the 

 water had receded so as to make him prisoner in a place so 

 shallow as not to cover his back fin. Emaciated as he was 

 for his head was far the largest part about him he 

 weighed twenty - one pounds, and would in very high 

 condition, I am certain, have reached thirty-five. He was 

 accurately measured before being turned loose, and was 

 forty-three inches in length." 



I may now give the principal measurements in inches of 

 the heads of three large Pike from Loch Ken : 



A. B. C. 

 Total length (from level of end of snout to 



extremity of operculum) . . . .11 12 

 Length on upper surface from anterior edge of 



vomer to posterior edge of frontals . 7-*- 8| 8| 



Greatest width across frontal bones . 2 t 3 3 



Length of maxillary ..... 4 5 5 



Lower jaw (measured in a straight line from 



symphysis to angle) . . . 8^ 8| 8f 



Under (A") are given the measurements of the head of a 

 Pike caught in June 1898 which weighed 37 Ibs., and 

 would no doubt have weighed a good deal more if it had 

 been taken three or four months earlier or later. This and 



