78 THE SPORTING FISH 



" having come to Picc-a-dilly." I have seen a 

 Pike take a pigeon that I had myself shot from 

 a pontoon at the Welsh Harp— the circumstance 

 indeed was witnessed by a number of people. Lord 

 Walsingham writes to me : — " Partridge shootintr 

 near a large piece of water I wounded, late in 

 the evening, a bird, which flew in the direction of 

 the water ; the next day I was Pike fishing, and 

 about fifty yards from the land, just opposite where 

 the wounded bird must have reached the water, I 

 caught a Pike of about 8 lbs. with a partridge in his 

 stomach— undoubtedly my bird. I discovered it 

 by seeing feathers sticking out of his throat while 

 extracting the hooks." Sometimes the heads of 

 swans diving for food encounter instead the ever- 

 open jaws of this fish, and both are killed ; 

 whilst among the frogs he is the very " King 

 Stork" of the fable. He will even seize that most 

 unsavoury of all morsels, the toad, although in this 

 case the inherent nauseousness of the animal saves 

 it from being actually swallowed, — its skin, like 

 that of the lizard, containing a white highly acid 

 secretion which is exuded from small glands dis- 

 persed over the body. 



Pike will attack both the land- and water-rat ; 

 occasionally pouching them, but more frequently 

 treating them as in the case of the toad, — a fact 

 confirmed by Captain Williamson, who adds : " But 

 whether owing to the resistance that animal (the 

 rat) makes, which I have witnessed to be very 



