12 THE PIKE. 



instances of their having seized and swallowed the 

 heads and necks of swans, and, being unable to 

 disgorge them, both bird and fish were found 

 choked and dead. 



On one of my angling visits to Sonning-on- 

 Thames, the landlord of the inn where I frequently 

 stayed, told me a pike had taken up its quarters 

 just above the bridge, and each morning, as his 

 half-grown ducks swam across the river to feed in 

 the opposite meadow, this pike had swallowed 

 them one by one, until at last, out of a brood of 

 fifteen, it had taken all but three. I was up and 

 out next morning soon after daybreak, and as the 

 surviving ducks swam over the river, there was a 

 bulge in the water, one more duck disappeared, 

 and I noticed where the pike made his home. The 

 landlord came out of doors about seven o'clock ; I 

 told him what had happened, and that I would try 

 to catch the pike. I pushed my punt up stream, 

 a little above bridge, and spun the water over 

 carefully with a small dace on my flight of hooks. 

 The pike came at my lure at once, but missed it, 

 making a swirl close to some sedges. I changed 

 my tackle to paternoster, with a gudgeon for 

 bait, worked it along by the sedges, hooked and 

 landed the pike ; then I caught four more, and 

 went in to breakfast. The landlord doubted I had 

 captured the fish. I rang for the puntsman ; told 

 him to bring in my captures ; there were five pike, 

 the smallest 6 Ibs., the largest weighed 15 Ibs., 

 and, on opening it, we found the duck inside, 

 with the feathers scarcely rumpled. 



Once, when fishing the Dorsetshire Frome, I 

 caught a pike with half of a large eel hanging 

 from its mouth, and, when the fish was opened and 



