146 BRITISH FRESHWATER FISHES 



circumstance once happened in the feeding of two 

 Pike kept in a glass vivarium. A bait was thrown 

 in about midway between the fish, when each 

 simultaneously darted forward to secure it, the 

 result being that the smaller fish fairly rushed into 

 the open jaws of the larger, where it remained fixed, 

 and only extricated itself with difficulty and after 

 a lapse of some seconds." 



Cases of undoubted cannibalism are numerous 

 enough, and a typical one is mentioned by Mr. 

 Pennell in his Book of the Pike. A gentleman had 

 set a trimmer overnight in the River Avon at 

 Chippenham, 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 opened 

 the fish and then saw inside it another Pike of 

 considerable size, from the mouth of which the line 

 proceeded. On opening the latter fish a third Pike 

 of about three-quarters of a pound weight, and 

 already partly digested, was discovered in its 

 stomach ; this last fish was, of course, the original 

 taker of the bait. 



Even large animals are sometimes attacked by 

 the Pike, and there are plenty of modern instances 

 to parallel those contained in the following passage 

 from Walton : " Gesner relates a man going to a 

 pond, where it seems a pike had devoured all the 

 fish, to water his mule, had a pike bit his mule by 

 the lips ; to which the pike hung so fast, that the 

 mule drew him out of the water, and by that 

 accident the owner of the mule angled out the pike. 

 And the same Gesner observes, that a maid in 

 Poland had a pike bit her by the foot, as she was 

 washing clothes in a pond. And I have heard the 



