LOACHES— PIKE — SALMON AND TROUT 357 



The pikes are represented in Europe only by the well-known 

 Esox luciws, the other three species being American. Pike, the 

 boldest and strongest among European fresh-water fish, are remarkable for their 

 voracity, swiftness of motion, and acute sense of hearing ; while in the wide mouth, 

 furnished with about six hundred long scythe-shaped teeth, they possess a formid- 

 able apparatus for the capture of prey. These tyrants of the waters attack not only 

 other fishes, including those of their own species, but even young water-fowl and 

 almost every inhabitant of the water. They vary according to age and the 

 locality in which they live, pike under 4 lbs. being generally called jack, while 

 such as are spotted with yellow and black are termed king-pike. The female of 

 this species is always larger than the male. 



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Salmon and The noblest of all fresh- water fish are the members of the salmon 



Trout. au( j trout tribe (Salmonidce), which are abundantly represented in the 

 northern half of the Eastern Hemisphere, their range being strictly confined to the 

 cooler waters. Owing to their great local variation, no group of fishes is more 

 puzzling to the systematic naturalist. Among the more widely spread t3'pes, the 

 river-trout (Salmo fario) is olive-green on the back, bronze-coloured below, and 

 yellowish green on the sides, with a larger or smaller number of black spots, mingled 

 with others which are orange-red, or even occasionally bordered with blue. This 

 handsome species inhabits swiftly flowing streams all over its distributional area, 

 whereas the lake-trout (S. ferox) is restricted to lakes. The latter species or race 

 is green or bluish green on the back, and silvery white below with the silvery flanks 

 ornamented with round and angular black spots. The sea-trout (S. trutta), on the 

 other hand, which has the back bluish grey, the sides silvery with very few black 

 dots, and the under-parts pure silvery, is nearer to the salmon, but coarser in 

 make, and often with more spots on the head. The most trustworthy distinction 

 between the two is to be found in the presence of from fourteen to sixteen scales 

 in an oblique row between the hind border of the fatty fin and the lateral line 

 in the sea-trout, and of only eleven or twelve such scales in the salmon. The root 

 of the tail is also much stouter in the sea-trout than in the salmon. In young 



