CHAPTEK XXII. 



THE PIKE, JACK, OR LUCE. 



THE Esox lucius, or pike, stands at the head of the family of the Esocidae, 

 and is comprised under the sub-genus Malacopterygii, or soft-finned 

 fishes, in contradistinction to some other fishes of prey, such as the 

 perch, which falls under the sub-division Acanthopterygii, or prickly 

 finned. For various reasons, it is of next importance to the Salmonidse ; 

 and from the voracity of its appetite and the unrelenting fierceness and 

 boldness of its general nature, it has been termed by Buffon the fresh- 

 water shark. 



According to Conch this fish is a native of Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, 

 Norway, Upper Baltic, Spain, Colder Asia, China, and America. The 

 Roman, Pliny, speaks of an esox in the Khine attaining the enormous 

 weight of lOOOlb. Ausonius, in the fourth century, says it is a fish of 

 the Moselle, and Juvenal, as will be seen hereafter, refers to it unmistak- 

 ably as being a fish of the Tiber. 



The American continent produces it in great abundan3e, as well as 

 several allied species, each possessing indisputable characteristics of the 

 Esox lucius. The following is the American nomenclature : pike, 

 Canada and the North-west ; lake and northern pickerel, New York ; 

 jack, Virginia ; big pickerel, North-east. All of these are proved to be 

 the Esox lucius, the pike of Linnaeus. The Mascaloye (Esox estor) is 

 the only differing variety of consequence. 



The first thing which arrests one's attention on examining this fish 

 is the immense muscular development of its motor powers, viz., the tail 

 and adjacent fins. The fish is evidently expressly fitted for chasing and 

 capture, and for the consumption of animal food only. The eye is placed 

 in the top of the head, to enable it to seize from below. It is a fish of 

 ambush. Its colour resembles the weeds in which it hides, and, like the 

 Lincoln green, in which the Sherwood foresters were clothed, this hue is 



