AND OF STILL WATERS. 73 



remarks, " I hardly know which is the least easy 

 to handle with any substantial comfort, a perch, 

 a red-hot coal, or a lively hedgehog." Appro- 

 priately was one of the old Saxon gods 

 represented standing with naked feet on the 

 back fin of a perch, " as an emblem of patience 

 in adversity and constancy in trial." Pike 

 have been said to refrain from devouring perch 

 on account of this dorsal fin ; but this has been 

 pretty well disproved, and certainly the many 

 deaths from " sticklebackitis " amongst young 

 jack would seem to denote that they are often 

 rash enough to attempt to negotiate far pricklier 

 food than a perch. Drayton alludes to this idea 

 when he speaks of 



" The perch with pricking fins, against the pike prepared." 



A pike's intelligence, however, is quite sufficient 

 to tell him that a perch swallowed, as he always 

 is, head-foremost, would be a comparatively 

 innocuous morsel, for the threatening fin would 

 be closed down, like the ribs of a furled um- 

 brella, when passing down the gullet. Once 

 the perch is inside, the pike knows his gastric 



