434 



ESOCID.E. 



ABDOMINAL 

 MALACOPTERYG11. 



ESOC1D&* 



THE PIKE. 



PICKERELL. JACK. LUCE. GEDD. Scotland. 



Esox lucius, LINNAEUS. BLOCK, pt. i. pi. 32. 

 ,, ,, Pi'/ce, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 424. pi. 74. 

 ,, ,, Brocket, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 282. 



Pike, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 109. 

 ,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 184, sp. 55. 



,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 417. 



Esox. Generic Characters. Head depressed, large, oblong, blunt ; jaws, 

 palatine bones, and vomer, furnished with teeth of various sizes ; body elon- 

 gated, rounded on the back ; sides compressed, covered with scales ; dorsal fin 

 placed very far back, over the anal fin. 



THE PIKE is a well-known inhabitant of the principal 

 rivers and lakes of Europe ; and although probably an 

 introduced fish in this country, and for a long time rare, 

 it is now exceedingly common in many of our rivers, and 

 in almost all the lakes and large ornamental waters of Eng- 

 land, Scotland, and Ireland. 



That Pike were rare formerly, may be inferred from the 

 fact that, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, Edward 



* The family of the Pikes. 



