34 THE PIKE. 



discovered that many of the pike had travelled by 

 some means or other from their own pond into 

 that of their neighbours, and had devoured the 

 greater part of them. 



That these pike should have taken less than two 

 cays to think out their marauding plan and put it 

 in practice is a proof that Esox lucius is at least 

 possessed of a prompt and decided character, and 

 there can be little doubt that the pike is an excep- 

 tion to the rule, that fish have little or n'o intel- 

 ligence. Even the size of his brain is worthy of 

 respect. Its proportionate size as compared to the 

 rest of the body, is as I to 1,300; in the shark, 

 whose intelligence has so often been vaunted, it is 

 only as I to 2,500, while in the tunny it is but 

 as i to 3,700. 



When the late Dr. Warwick resided at Dunham, 

 the seat of the Earl of Stamford and Warrington, he 

 was walking in the park by a pond where fish were 

 temporarily kept for the table ; and a pike of about 

 6 Ibs. weight, when it observed him darted hastily 

 A ver away, and in doing so struck its head 

 strange against a tenter-hook in a post, one of 

 ory several placed in the pond to prevent poach- 

 ing ; and, as it afterwards appeared, fractured its 

 skull and turned the optic nerve on one side. The 

 anguish suffered by the fish appeared, to be in- 

 tense ; it rushed to the bottom, boring its head into 

 the mud, writhing about, and for a short interval was 

 almost lost to sight ; then plunging about the pond, 

 at length threw itself out of the water on to the 

 bank. The doctor on examining it found a small 

 portion of brain was protruding from the fracture 

 in the skull. He carefully replaced this, raised the 

 indented portion of the skull, and replaced the 



