104 MALACOP. ABDOM. PIKE FAMILY. 



caught in pailfuls, and many were thrown ashore^ 

 No one remembered such a thing happening before* 

 Dr. Neill states that they are not uncommon in the 

 north of Scotland ; and almost every autumn, they 

 enter the Forth in considerable shoals. According 

 to the Doctor, it is a stupid, inactive fish. " When 

 they run up our Firth in numbers, they do not, 

 like other fishes, retire from the shallows at the 

 ebbing of the tide, but are then found by hundreds, 

 having their long nose stuck in the sledge." Dr. 

 Parnell mentions that of late years not a single spe- 

 cimen has been observed in the Firth. They are 

 sometimes seen off Berwick and Yarmouth, on the 

 east coast, and occasionally on the southern. The 

 following account of the habits of this fish is from 

 the pen of Mr. Couch, who has so frequently laid 

 the lovers of Natural History under obligation by 

 his interesting details. " It does not swim deep in 

 the water ; and in its harmless manners resembles 

 the Flying-fish, as well as in the persecution it ex- 

 periences from the ravenous inhabitants of the ocean, 

 and the method it adopts to escape from their pur- 

 suit. It is gregarious, and is sometimes seen to rise 

 to the surface in large shoals, and flit over a con- 

 siderable space. But the most interesting spectacle, 

 and that which displays their greatest agility, is 

 when they are followed by a company of Porpoises, 

 or their still more active and persevering enemies the 

 Tunny and Bonito. Multitudes then mount to the 

 surface and crowd on each other, as they press for- 

 ward. When still more closely pursued, they singly 



