74 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK: 



juices too well to have further qualms. Perhaps 

 it is the necessity of taking good aim when 

 proceeding to swallow a perch that makes the 

 pike fight shy of him in his hours of repletion, 

 for a perch swallowed sideways would certainly 

 give trouble. In many places both in England 

 and the south of Scotland small perch are con- 

 sidered the best taking bait for pike, and in 

 Slapton Lea a perch with his back fin cut off is 

 almost the only bait used for pike-fishing. 

 Some writers suggest that it is on account 

 of the unusually rough skin and closely-set 

 scales of the perch that that all-devouring 

 monster the pike is lenient towards him. 

 However, it is hardly necessary to find reason 

 for a fallacy. 



Pike are often caught in Sweden in a curious 

 way, illustrative of their greed. Large perch 

 swallow the baited hooks on the night-lines, 

 and in their turn are swallowed by pike. In 

 this case, however, it is, of course, impossible 

 for the pike to swallow the perch head-foremost, 

 and, though he is not actually hooked, yet the 

 perch's spines set so fast in his throat and 



