32 FOOD CF FISHES. 



gardener and other workmen there to take the ducks 

 and other water-fowls under water ; whereupon they 

 shot magpies and crows, and threw them into the 

 canal, which the pike took before their eyes. Of this 

 they acquainted their lord, who thereupon ordered the 

 slaughterman to fling calves' bellies, chickens' guts, and 

 such like garbage to him to prey upon, but being soon 

 after neglected he died, as supposed for want of food." 

 Instances are mentioned of the pike having attempted 

 to swallow too large a fish, part was left hanging out 

 of the mouth, till the rest was digested; but some 

 remarks of Professor Jurine of Geneva, may serve to 

 explain this upon a different principle. In the lake of 

 Geneva, perches fished in the winter from a depth of 

 forty or fifty fathoms, frequently have their stomachs 

 crammed up to the very mouth, a circumstance some- 

 times, though more rarely, observed in the burbot 1 . 

 This the author endeavours to explain, by referring to 

 the sudden diminution of pressure upon the air contained 

 in the swim-bladder, and in the abdominal cavity, 

 when the fish is dragged rapidly to the surface of the 

 water. The dilated air bursts through the envelopes ; 

 and, unable to find an exit, it pushes before it the 

 organ which presents the least resistance, namely, the 

 stomach, which it reverses, and heaves up to the 

 mouth. The swim-bladder is not, in such cases, 

 burst, but usually flaccid. If this be correct, the perch 

 is not so much of a glutton, as to a careless observer 

 it might at first appear. 



(1) In Latin, Gadus Lota. 



