32 Report, Sfc. 



The exhibitions were : — 

 A Hammer Oyster . . . . . . By Mr. Faeear. 



Pelham was elected a member, and Mr. Holmes and Mr. 

 Griffith honorary members of the Society. 



Holland then read a paper on 



PIKE. 



We extract the following. 



The pike belongs to the genus Esox, which was established by 

 Linnaeus for the reception of the pike and some allied forms. 

 The subject of our present paper is the Lucius vulgaris, or com- 

 mon pike. It is also called the Luce, Pickerell, Gedd, and Jack : 

 though properly speaking a Jack is only a small pike, and becomes 

 a pike after it attains more than three pounds weight or twenty- 

 four inches in length. 



Pike have a flattish head ; the under jaw is rather longer than 

 the upper one, and turns up a little. The body is long and cased 

 with very small hard scales, and when the fish is in season, covered 

 with a slimy substance. The back is dark and almost black, the 

 upper part of the sides are of a greenish golden hue, covered with 

 beautiful spots of a bright white and yellowish colour, while the 

 fins and tail are beautifully variegated with vivid colours and spots 

 of blackish purple : and the belly is white. The dorsal fin is 

 placed far back just over the anal fin. The eyes are of a bright 

 yellow, and sunk low in the sockets, so as to enable the fish to 

 look upwards. The mouth is extremely wide, the tongue very 

 large, and studded with teeth. Without including those nearest 

 the throat, the teeth are no fewer than five hundred : and those 

 which are placed in the javps are alternately moveable and fixed. 

 Pike seize their prey across the body, and usually retire with it to 

 their haunts, where they swallow it at their leisure, head foremost: 

 sometimes they will pouch their prey immediately they seize it. 



For the first four or five years of their life pike increase in 

 weight at the rate of rather more than a pound a year, and during 

 that time continue to grow in length ; but after that period they 

 grow more in breadth and thickness. Pike are partial to quiet 

 retired places, where the water is rather shallow than deep. In 

 rivers and large pieces of water thej' frequent the bends and bays 

 which are removed from strong currents, especially where the 

 pickerell grows which is their favourite weed, and on which they 



