CHAPTER XI 
THE (PIKE 
The Pike—Habits—Distribution—Pike as Food—Angling for Pike. 
Tenth Family: ESOCIDA:: THE PIKES 
Tue Pike Family is limited to fresh water, and contains but 
a single genus—Esox—whereof one species, Esox J/ucius, is 
common to Europe, Asia, and America. The last-named 
continent produces, in addition, about five other species, very 
similar in general appearance and habits to the British pike. 
It is an ancient type of fish, members of the existing genus 
having been found in a fossil state “in the fresh-water chalk 
of Oeningen and the diluvial marl of Silesia.” * 
The Pike (Esox lucius) 
FIns. TEETH. 
Dorsal: 1g rays. Numerous: those on the mandible re- 
Pectoral: 15 rays. curved, in a single series, five or six on 
Ventral: to rays. each side, unequal in size. Bands of 
Anal: ig rays. sickle-shaped teeth on the vomer, palate, 
intermaxillary, and hyoid bones. None 
on the maxillary. 
It has often been asserted that the pike, now universally 
distributed over Great Britain and Ireland, is not truly 
indigenous, but was introduced in the same manner as carp ; 
* Ginther, Zntroduction to the Study of Fishes, p. 624. 
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