8 4 THE SPORTING FISH 



females of three or four years old taking the lead 

 and the dowagers following. For this purpose 

 they quit the open waters in pairs, and retire into 

 the fens, ditches, or shallows, where they deposit 

 their spawn amongst the leaves of aquatic plants ; 

 and during this period the male may often be ob- 

 served following the female about from place to 

 place, and attending upon her with much apparent 

 solicitude. As many as 80,000 eggs have been 

 counted in one fish. When the spawning-process 

 is complete the fish return again into the rivers, 

 and are then for some weeks in a state of partial 

 stupefaction, and unfit for food. In streams they 

 begin to be in condition again about June, and are 

 in their best season in November; but in still 

 waters the recuperative process is much slower. 



Characteristics of the Pike Family. Head depressed, large, 

 oblong, blunt. Body elongated, rounded on the back ; sides 

 compressed, covered with scales. Dorsal fin placed very far 

 back, over anal fin. Jaws, palatine bones, and vomer furnished 

 with teeth of various sizes. 



Principal Characteristics of the common Pike. Body elon- 

 gated, nearly uniform in depth from head to commencement of 

 back-fin, then becoming narrower; body covered with small 

 scales ) lateral line indistinct. Length of head compared to total 

 length of head, body, and tail, as i to 4. Back- and anal fins 

 placed very far back, nearly opposite each other. From point of 

 nose to origin of pectoral-fin, thence to origin of ventral fin, and 

 thence to commencement of anal fin are three nearly equal dis- 

 tances. Pectoral and ventral fins small ; rays of anal fin elongated. 

 Tail somewhat forked. Shape of head long, flattened, and wide ; 

 gape extensive. Lower jaw longest, with numerous small teeth 

 round the front. The sides with five or six very large and sharp 



