HABITS OF PIKE. 7 



From which early dates, we may infer, I think, 

 that pike are indigenous. 



The pike is undoubtedly a fish of great 

 antiquity, known to several Latin authors, who 

 mention them as being caught of large size in the 

 Tiber ; but it is questionable whether the Esox of 

 Pliny was of the same kind as the British species. 



The earliest date in which Lucius is mentioned 

 in either poetry or prose was in the fourth century 

 of the Christian era, when the poet Ausonius sang 

 of him as 



" The wary Luce, 'midst wrack and rushes hid, 

 The scourge and terror of the scaly brood." 



Pike were highly esteemed on the table in this 

 country during the fifteenth and sixteenth centu- 

 ries, and frequent mention of them occurs in the 

 bills of fare of that period. " Luce salt," " pyke in 

 harblet or herblade," " in latmer sauce," " in foyle," 

 "in sharpe sauce," occur among the innumerable 

 dishes served at the " inthronizations " of the 

 Archbishop of York in 1467, and of the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury in I5O4- 1 



Pike are monogamous, and by February have 

 paired, so that after this month, where one is 

 caught the other may very often be Habits 

 captured ; the female spawns in March of 

 or early in April, depositing from 50,000 

 eggs to 500,000 by a 32 Ib. fish on submerged 

 rushes, sedges and sub-aqueous weeds, in shallow, 

 quiet bays and ditches ; the eggs, which are 

 small, hatch in from eighteen to twenty-one 

 days. The growth rate of pike no doubt varies 

 according to the conditions under which they live : 



1 Leland's Collectanea (edit. 1774), vol. vi. 



