76 THE SPORTING FISH 



that more young Jack are destroyed by their own 

 parents than by any or perhaps all other enemies 

 put together. 



A remarkable instance of this characteristic 

 propensity was communicated to me by Mr. L — 

 of Chippenham, Wiltshire, to whom the incident 

 occurred. This gentleman had set a trimmer in 

 the River Avon over night, and on proceeding 

 the next morning to take it up he found a heavy 

 Pike apparently fast upon his hooks. In order to 

 extract these he was obliged to open the fish, and 

 in doing so perceived another Pike of considerable 

 size inside the first, from the mouth of which the 

 line proceeded. This fish it was also found neces- 

 sary to open ; when, extraordinary to state, a 

 third Pike of about \ lb. weight and already 

 partly digested was discovered in the stomach of 

 the second ! 



Of the indiscriminating character of the Pike's 

 appetite a more apt illustration could not perhaps 

 be given than the following, kindly communicated 

 to me by Lord Walsingham, who is himself an en- 

 thusiastic angler and a close observer of nature : — 

 " A newly cut ash-pole, with the bark peeled off 

 for a few inches at the small end, was lying across 

 the punt in which I was fishing, the pole was some- 

 what bent, and owing to the wind and my move- 

 ments in the boat, the end frequently dipped in 

 the water. A Pike dashed at it and seized it, 

 leaving the marks of his teeth distinctly visible in 

 the wood." 



