102 GROWTH AND HABITS OF PIKE. 



by a clever axiatoBiist, it was discovered that several ver- 

 tebrae had been supplemented. However much or little 

 of ihi^ story has been exaggerated, the fact that pike, 

 under favourable circumstances of food and water, will 

 reach a very large size is undoubted, and the rate of growth 

 in the earlier years, where food is plentiful, and the water 

 suitable, is astonishingly rapid. Mr. Simeon, in his ad- 

 mirable ' Stray Notes on Natural History,' cites an instance 

 in which pike had increased to nearly twenty pounds 

 weight (from two or three) in eighteen months, or at the 

 rate of almost ten or eleven pounds a year. 



The pike is from his habits a solitary fish, though big 

 ones are often found in pairs ; and after floods and frosts 

 they may, like perch, be found collected together in 

 numbers, in any favourable eddy, such as the mouth of a 

 back-water, or the tail of an island, the ends of old locks, 

 reed or rush beds, the corners of tumbling bays, &c., all 

 of which are favourite holds. They spawn from March tijl 

 the end of May, in ditches and back-waters, and, after a 

 short rest, they scour themselves in the streams, and then 

 take up their regular habitation and hunting-grounds for 

 the season. The pike, when young, and up to about four 

 pounds weight, has been called a jack, until by degrees it 

 has often come to be called a jack, no matter of what size 

 it may be. It is certainly one of the most omnivorous fish 

 that swims ; and, when hungry, nothing living, and a few 

 things dead, come amiss to it. I have known pike to take 

 plummets and floats when in motion, under the idea that 

 they were edibles, and retain their hold of them for some 

 space in spite of strong pulling. Yet, where they are 

 well fed, and are much fished for, they get tolerably shy 

 and wide-awake ; and a pike that has been run once or twice 

 and roughly handled, is apt to come at the bait somewhat 

 cautiously. 



I am satisfied from all I have noticed that pike (big 



