VORACITY OF THE PIKE. Ill 



are there destroyed by predatory fish, soon after 

 they have left the egg. "We know that the 

 Scandinavian waters abound with pike of immense 

 size, and if we may judge of the propensities and 

 powers of these monsters from what we see in 

 our own country, the destruction of aquatic 

 birds during the breeding season must be very 

 great. Vast numbers of the young of the com- 

 mon wild duck are annually devoured on the 

 ponds or artificial lakes in parks or pleasure 

 grounds where this voracious fish abounds; or 

 even where a few of the species have attained a 

 considerable size, and the quantity of ' feed/ in 

 the shape of roach and dace, has been much 

 reduced. In this way about two hundred duck- 

 lings disappeared from the large pond in Petworth 

 Park this summer, 1850. Here there was no 

 lack of small fish ; but to the truculent propen- 

 sities of certain fresh water leviathans who are 

 known to dwell beneath, and who are proof 

 against the seductive stratagems of the most 

 experienced troller; or perhaps to the circum- 

 stance of their being already glutted with an 

 entree of fish, and willing to vary their dietary 

 with a second course of wild fowl, may be at- 

 tributed the murder of the little innocents. 



Lord G* * *, an observer of nature and an 

 accomplished angler, was, I believe, the first 



