THE PIKE 139 



the present day, although two or three have been 

 found fossil in Oligocene and Miocene deposits 

 in Central Europe. Our species is found all over 

 Europe, except Spain and Portugal, and in Russian 

 Turkestan, Siberia, and Mongolia ; in North America 

 it ranges from the region of the Great Lakes to 

 Alaska. It is abundant in all four countries of the 

 British Isles, but becomes rather scarce and local 

 in the Northern Highlands of Scotland. 



The Pike resembles the members of the Herring 

 and Salmon families in that the maxillaries border 

 the mouth, all the fin-rays are flexible and jointed, 

 the pectoral fins are placed low down, and the 

 pelvic fins are abdominal in position ; important 

 differences are the separation of the prcemaxillaries 

 by the vomer and the backward position of the 

 dorsal fin, which is opposite to the anal. 



The body is elongate, covered with small scales, 

 the head flat above, the snout prolonged and 

 depressed, and the mouth large ; the eyes are 

 placed high, about in the middle of the length of 

 the head. The praemaxillary teeth are small and 

 the maxillaries are toothless ; the roof of the 

 mouth is furnished with three parallel bands of 

 slender, pointed, backwardly directed, depressible 

 teeth, the middle band on the vomer, the lateral 

 ones on the palatine bones ; there is also a band 

 of teeth on the tongue ; the strongest teeth are at 

 the sides of the lower jaw, where they are few, 

 fixed and erect, as eminently adapted for seizing 

 prey as the rest are for facilitating its passage 

 inwards and preventing its escape. 



In colour the Pike is greenish, with the lower parts 

 white, and with yellow spots or undulating bands 



