212 NATURE STUDY. 



The Story of Pike. 



BY UNCLK NED. 



CHAPTER II. 



Pike, in catching a tiny beetle and making his first 

 meal from it, had done a very unusual thing for so small a 

 pickerel. It happened once, but it was not likely to hap- 

 pen again. He grew tired and hungry waiting for more 

 small beetles, and began looking about for something to 

 eat. 



Across the brook from the sandbar where Pike was 

 hatched, there was a large patch of still water, with a 

 muddy bottom, and covered with lily-pads. In this wa- 

 ter were a great number of "wrigglers." These wrig- 

 glers were young mosquitoes which had hatched from eggs 

 laid in the water a short time before, and which had not 

 yet learned to fly, or even got their wings. They had a 

 queer habit of rising to the surface and hanging head 

 downward. 



Pike found that he could easily catch wrigglers when 

 they came up to breathe and were resting in that way. It 

 was great sport for him, and sometimes he had as many as 

 twenty at once stuffed into his little stomach. For several 

 days he fed entirely upon them and grew very fast. Of 

 course it made fewer mosquitoes, but nobody ever missed 

 them. 



Pike had two good reasons for staying near the surface 

 of the water. He found things there that he liked to eat, 

 and there were dreadful creatures below that wanted to eat 

 him. So he early formed the habit of lying still for hours 

 at a time with just enough water over him to keep him 

 wet, and the habit was so strong that he lived that way all 

 his life, even after he was so big that he did not need to 

 be afraid of anything that lived in the water. 



