MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 4G3 



When it has darted on an animal of any volume, it seizes 

 it by the head, and retains it in its large gullet, with its sharp 

 and curved teeth, until the anterior portion of this prey is 

 softened, or rather half digested ; it then draws in the rest and 

 swallows it, after the manner of the boas. The only fishes in 

 rivers that are dreaded by the pike are the perches and 

 sticlde-backs, in consequence of the spines with which their 

 dorsal fins are armed ; but it will sometimes even attack the 

 perch, wound it, hold it in an immoveable position, and wait 

 till it succumbs under the loss of blood, to swallow it after it 

 is dead. Albertus Magnus tells us that he was a witness of 

 this fact. As for the stickle-back, it can never serve as food 

 to the pike, for its prickles stand up at the moment of its 

 death, and when a young pike, without experience, and 

 pressed by hunger, ventures to swallow one, it almost con- 

 stantly loses its life. 



We read in a description of the lake of Zirknitz, in Car- 

 niola, by Weichard Valvasor, that that lake supports in great 

 abundance pikes of the weight of ten, twenty, thirty, and 

 forty pounds, in the stomach of which it is usual enough to 

 find entire ducks. Another writer tells us that in the sto- 

 machs of certain pikes the spinous fruits of the trapa natans 

 have been found, commonly called water chestnuts: and, in 

 fine, Johnston assures us that he has seen a large pike, which 

 contained in its belly another large pike, which had in its 

 own belly a water-rat ! 



The pike may grow to the length of from six to nine feet, 

 and attain to the weight of eighty or one hundred pounds. 

 Those of four or five feet long are not rare in the immense 

 lakes of the north of Europe, and in the great rivers of 

 Northern Asia. Willughby saw one in this country which 

 weighed forty-three pounds; and Dr. Brand, on his estate 

 near Berlin, caught a pike which measured seven feet in 

 length. Bloch examined the skeleton of the head of another 

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