THE PIKE 3 



The scientific name of the pike is " Esox Lucius," and on 

 looking up a dictionary I find he is described thus : — " So 

 called from the shape of his head and jaws. Head de- 

 pressed, large, oblong, blunt; jaws, palatine bones and 

 vomer furnished with teeth of various sizes; body, elon- 

 gated, rounded on the back, sides compressed, covered with 

 scales ; dorsal fin placed far back over the anal fin ; whole 

 body mottled with white, yellow, and green." Walton calls 

 the pike " a solitary, melancholy, and bold fish," and cer- 

 tainly this is a very good description, although some odd 

 times they may be found congregated together in consider- 

 able numbers; but speaking generally they are not very 

 often discovered in shoals like roach, dace, and bream; 

 more often than not, especially during the winter months^ 

 are they solitary tenants of a quiet reedy comer, away from 

 the rush of the main stream, sole monarchs of that small 

 domain, ready to pounce out at a moment's notice on any 

 unwary roach or dace that happens to stray within striking 

 distance. One writer describing the habits and haunts of 

 the pike uses a few sentences that are worth repeating, he 

 says : " Shrouded from obsen^ation in his solitary retreat, he 

 follows with his eye the shoals of fish that wander heedlessly 

 along ; he marks the water-rat swimming to his burrow, the 

 ducklings paddling among the water-weeds, the dabchick 

 and the moor-hen swimming leisurely on the surface; he 

 selects his victim, and like the tiger springing from the 

 jungle he rushes forth, seldom missing his aim ; there is a 

 sudden swirl and splash, circle after circle forms on the sur- 

 face of the water, and all is still again in an instant." A 

 long catalogue of fables and traditions have been handed 

 down from one writer to another on this point of our jack's 

 savage ferocity, and also on his marvellous powers of diges- 

 tion ; and none of these traditions seem to lose anything by 

 being repeated, and I don't know that they need, for he has 

 well earned that name given him by certain writers — the 

 " freshwater shark." What he won't take as a bait would 

 be rather a more diflScult question to answer than what he 

 will, for there are hundreds of anecdotes told about him, 

 and the astounding things he will seize at a pinch. One 

 writer savs " that a swan was once noticed on a lake with its 



