Habits of the Pike. 307 



Scotland and Ireland. One fish to which allusion 

 is made by Daniel in his ' Eural Sports/ and others 

 was caught in Loch Ken in Galloway, and scaled 

 72 Ib. 1 According to " Ephemera," " the largest 

 pike recorded to have been caught in the British 

 Islands was one taken in the Shannon. It weighed 

 92 Ib." 



Walton characterises the pike as a "solitary, 

 melancholy, bold" fish. It does not, however, 

 always swim alone; big fish are often found in 

 pairs, and at certain seasons after floods, for ex- 

 ample, pike are quite as gregarious as trout. 

 Melancholy they are without doubt, if not sulky ; 

 fickle to a degree, and influenced greatly by the 

 weather, they are sometimes not to be drawn from 

 their haunts by the most tempting bait. When 

 in the humour, however, and bent on prey, their 

 audacity is unbounded. They are not to be balked 

 by difficulty or deterred by danger : their courage 

 in pursuit of their game is equalled only by their 

 capacity for devouring it. 



Pike spawn in March, April, and May, according 

 to the state of the weather and the age of the fish 

 the younger ones spawning earlier, and the " dow- 



1 This is the largest pike ever killed in Scotland ; and Mr 

 Young, in his Second Report to the Scottish Fishery Board (1883), 

 reminds us that it was taken with rod and fly. The head is still 

 preserved in Kenmure Castle. 



