THE PIKE. 281 



palatine bones and vomer, furnished with teeth of various 

 sizes ; body elongated, rounded on the back ; sides com- 

 pressed, covered with scales ; dorsal fin placed very far 

 back over the anal fin." 



The colour of the head and upper part of the back 

 dusky olive-brown, becoming lighter and mottled with 

 green and yellow on the sides, passing into silvery-white 

 on the belly. Pectoral and ventral fins pale brown ; dorsal, 

 anal, and caudal fins darker brown, mottled with white, 

 yellow, and dark green ; irides yellow. 



The fin-rays : dorsal, 19 ; pectoral, 14 ; ventral, 10 ; 

 anal, 17 ; caudal, 19. 



Odd notions were held about the pike in early days. 

 The eighth chapter of the " Com pleat Angler," ed. 1653, 

 commences thus : " It is not to be doubted but that the 

 Luce or Pickrell or Pike breeds by spawning, and yet 

 Gesner sayes ' that some of them breed where none ever 

 was, out of a weed called Pikrell weed and other glutinous 

 matter; which, with the help of the sun's heat, proves in 

 some particular ponds apted by nature for it to become 

 pikes.' " 



Moses Browne writes in one of his piscatory eclogues: 



" Say, canst thou tell how worms of moisture breed, 

 Or pike are gender'd of the Pickrell weed?" 



As the spawn is deposited among the leaves of aquatic 

 plants in March or early in April, one can easily understand 

 how these early writers were misled. 



Pike, in spawning-time, generally frequent the ditches 

 and smaller stagnant waters near the main river in pairs, 

 and there perform the necessary functions for reproducing 

 their species ; and it has been asserted by some that the 

 female after this is over not infrequently devours her 

 husband. 



Pike commence to breed when about three years old. 



The pike is certainly the most voracious of all our fresh- 

 water fishes, and therefore its presence in a trout-stream 

 is much to be dreaded ; for it appears that a small trout is 

 a persona grata to this wolf of the waters. 



