PIKE IN TROUT WATERS 195 



the examination of four pike. In one instance, 

 a Q-in. pike had partially digested a trout com- 

 puted to be four inches long; a 7^-lb. pike, 

 besides other kinds of fish, had swallowed a trout 

 weighing about i^ Ib. ; an n-in. pike had found 

 room for three lamperns, two bullheads, and two 

 yearling trout ; the fourth pike of 2\ Ib. had the 

 tail of a |-lb. trout protruding from its jaws. The 

 author's comments are worthy of repetition ; he says : 

 'Take these four examples, multiply them by the 

 thousands of pike in a neglected trout stream, consider 

 the rapid rate at which they increase, and no further 

 argument can be needed to demonstrate the para- 

 mount necessity of declaring war to the knife against 

 Esox lucius? 



Many fishermen have expressed the opinion 

 that, in rivers where the pike for various reasons 

 cannot be exterminated or kept within proper 

 bounds, it is a good plan to retain a small head of 

 coarse fish for the pike to feed upon, and thereby 

 save the trout from decimation. I do not think 

 that a hungry pike when out foraging for food would 

 spare a trout which chanced to cross its path, but if 

 it can be proved that the coarse fish are more 

 easily captured than the trout, and that the pike is a 

 lazy feeder, the contention would appear well founded. 



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