336 THE REASON WHY. 



" The lavish slave 



Six thousand pieces for a barbel gave ; 



A sestrice for each pound it weigh'd, as they 



Gave out, that hear great things, but greater say." DTTKE. 



a.bout four inches in length ; he swallowed four of them, and kept the last in his 

 mouth for about a quarter of an hour, when it also disappeared." Digestion in the 

 pike goes on very rapidly, and they are therefore most expensive fish to maintain. 

 In default of a sufficient quantity of fishes to satisfy them, moor-hens, ducks, 

 and indeed any animals of small size, whether alive or dead, are constantly 

 consumed ; their boldness and voracity are equally proverbial. Dr. Plot relates, 

 that at Lord Gower's canal, at Trentham, a pike seized the head of a swan as she 

 was feeding under water, and gorged so much of it as killed them both ; the servants 

 perceiving the swan with its head under water for a longer time than usual, took 

 the boat, and found both swan and pike dead. Gesner relates that a pike in the 

 Rhone seized on the lips of a mule that was brought to water, and that the beast 

 drew the fish out before it could disengage itself. Walton was assured by his 

 friend Mr. Segrave, who kept tame otters, that he had known a pike in extreme 

 hunger fight with one of his otters for a carp which the otter had caught, and was 

 then bringing out of the water; proving the old adage, that, "it is a hard thing 

 to persuade the belly, because it has no ears." A woman in Poland had her foot 

 seized by a pike as she was washing clothes in a pond ; and the same thing is said to 

 have happened at Killingworth pond, near Coventry. The head keeper of Richmond 

 Park was once washing his hand over the side of a boat in the great pond in that 

 park, when a pike made a dart at it, and he had but just time to withdraw it. Mr. 

 Jesse adds, that " a gentleman now residing at Wej'bridge, in Surrey, walking one 

 day by the side of the River Wey, near that town, saw a large pike in a shallow 

 creek. He immediately pulled off his coat, tucked up his shirt-sleeves, and went 

 into the water to intercept the return of the fish to the river, and to endeavour to 

 throw it out upon the bank by getting his hands under it. During this attempt, 

 the pike, finding he could not make his escape, seized one of the arms of the 

 gentleman, and lacerated it so much that the marks of the wound are still 

 visible."* 



1076. Wliy is the barbel so called? 



From the Latin barbalatus, meaning barbs, or beards, in 

 reference to the appendages to its lower jaw. 



1077. Why is the first ray of the dorsal fin of thf, barbel 

 deeply serrated? 



The serrations arise from certain additions to the ray, which 

 impart a greater degree of strength to it. This increased strength 

 facilitates the movements of the fish in the rapid currents and 

 mill streams which it frequents. 



Yarrell's British Fishes." 



