NATURAL HISTORY. 431 



The method of fishing for Pike called " trimming" is hardly 

 worth mention. A line baited with living fish is fastened to a 

 float, and suffered to lie on the surface of the water. The Pike, 

 seeing the bait swimming about, dashes at it and hooks itself 

 in the effort. 



This fish varies in size from two or three pounds' weight to 

 twenty or thirty, but a Pike weighing fifteen pounds is con- 

 sidered a very fine fish. Above that weight they are almost 

 useless for the table. A Pike weighing less than two pounds 

 is called a jack.* 



The appetite of this fish is almost insatiable. Mr. Jesse 

 threw to one Pike of five pounds' weight, four roach, each 

 about four inches in length, which it devoured instantly, and 

 swallowed a fifth within a quarter of an hour. Moor-hens, 

 ducks, and even swans have been known to fall a prey to this 

 voracious fish, its long teeth effectually keeping them prisoners 

 under water until drowned. 



THE FLYING-FISH. 



This fish, so celebrated in most books of voyages, is found 

 in the warmer latitudes, but has several times been seen off 

 our coasts. The so-called "flight" is very similar to that of 

 the flying squirrels and dragons, the fish merely springing 

 out of the water with a violent impetus, and sustaining itself 

 in the air by means of its enormous pectoral fins. It is not 

 able to alter its course while in the air, nor to rise a second 

 time without repeating its course through the water. The 

 reader will notice the remarkable fact, that individuals of three 

 wingless classes, the Mammalia, the Reptiles, and the Fishes, 

 have each the power of sustaining themselves in the air. 



The "flight" of this fish seldom exceeds two hundred yards. 

 The unfortunate creatures are pursued in the water by " Dora- 

 dos," erroneously called dolphins, and other fishes of prey. To 

 escape their finny tyrants, they spring into the air, and for a 

 while escape. But the gulls and aibatroses are on the watch, 



* In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford is a Pike weighing thirty pounds, that was 

 taken in the lake at Blenheim Park. 



