MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 465 



be abstracted from the influence of the sun. At this time the 

 pikes are so much occupied, and so attentive, that they may 

 be caught with the hand. 



In their first year the pikes have a green tint ; they become 

 grey in the course of the second, with pale spots, which, the 

 following year, present a shade of fine yellow. These spots are 

 irregular, and during the spring season often assume a golden 

 brilliancy, and then the general grey colour is changed into 

 a fine green. In certain waters, in consequence of scarcity, 

 the shades of the pike sometimes vary, and it becomes yel- 

 low, with black spots. It is then called the king of the pikes, 

 and is much esteemed. According to Schwenckfeld, some 

 pikes are perfectly white. 



The pike grows with great rapidity. In its first year it is 

 often eleven or twelve inches long ; in the sixth it has been 

 known to measure six feet, and in the twelfth about seven or 

 eight. 



If the pikes are a scourge to the inhabitants of the waters 

 which they frequent, they are themselves very often delivered 

 without defence, to internal enemies. On dissection, the 

 taenia are found strongly hooked to the parietes of the 

 intestines. Bloch has reckoned a hundred of these worms 

 in one individual which weighed no more than three 

 pounds. 



Our figure of Esox Lewini, is from a drawing by Mr. 

 Lewin, made in New Holland, of a species not hitherto 

 noticed. 



We shall now briefly notice theExoc(ETUS,or flying fishes. 

 The name is derived from fcu, out of, and koitoq, dwelling, 

 and indicates the faculty which all the species possess of 

 raising themselves into the air. It is singular that Artedi 

 should have confounded them with the blennies. 



The common flying fish, Exoccetns volitans, is found in al- 



vol. X. H h 



