370 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



for their bodies were cut all alon^^ the sides and bellies. 



The Pike is not particular as to the quality of his food. 

 Anything that is alive or can be digested is eaten and 

 enjoyed. I can remember in my boyhood days, a smart 

 spaniel pup that would go anywhere his young boss told him 

 to go. I sent him across the large iish-pond, in the grounds 

 at the rear of the old home. While swimming across he 

 began yelping most pitifully, and put on a spurt to the bank 

 of the pond where I was standing; I was on my knees ready 

 to Hft him out; a big Pike was following him. I caught the 

 dog by the neck, pulled him out and took him to the house. 

 Mother dressed a badly lacerated hind leg. Boy-like, I was 

 fond of that pond, and after getting several duckings that 

 closely approached drowning, and thrashings almost without 

 number, and after a sheep had been drowned in the pond, 

 it was decided that it must be drained and filled up. The 

 big Pike that snapped at the spaniel was there, but not a sign 

 of a turtle of any kmd. There were fish in abundance, but 

 by far the largest and handsomest was the pup's enemy, 

 which, when dressed, weighed twelve pounds. 



My home was near a large paper-mill, having an abun- 

 dance of cold spring-water draining a valley twenty miles 

 long. Two rivers and several creeks fed the large streams. 

 It was a splendid feeding and breeding ground for the 

 Esocidse. Trout were also found in the smaller streams, 

 but in the two rivers the Esocidas could be found anywhere. 

 Abundance of flags and rushes lined the banks of one stream; 

 these were the home of the hell-diver family — and of the 

 mud hen. Many times have I laid watching the antics of 

 the young of both species. As they grew larger the mother 

 bird would take them into the larger stream. One day, 

 while I was watching the diving and preening of the family, 

 one of them suddenly disappeared under the water. The 

 hen-bird began to gather the little ones around her with such 

 a squawking and clucking that I, too, grew interested and 



