566 



THE NATURE BOOK 



taking of Pike during the breeding season 

 is considered an infraction of fishery laws, 

 and an unsportsmanhke misdemeanour in 

 all waters that are not sacred to the salmon 

 and trout. 



The Pike is of the family of the Esocidcc, 

 and its scientific name is Esox Lucius. 

 From Lucius, the old name of the fish, the 



spawning. They resort to quiet, reedy 

 backwaters, tributaries, and dykes. 



Young Pike of a few inches in length 

 soon begin to prey upon the fry of other 

 fish, and where food is plentiful they 

 grow rapidly. " The tyrant of the flood," 

 as Pope calls the Pike, attains a great 

 weight in some waters ; and the literature 



of angling 

 abounds with 

 accounts of 

 monsters cap- 

 tured from the 

 rivers of Eastern 

 England, from 

 Scottish lochs 

 and Irish 

 loughs. In 

 Wales, fish of 

 this species are 

 rarely taken 

 over fifteen 

 pounds in 

 weight ; but 

 such are found 

 in a few lakes, 

 in parts of the 

 Dee, and in 

 private ponds. 

 Pike are not 



HEAD OF A PIKE, 28}^ LBS., CAUGHT IN THE 



Luce, used by Walton and other writers, 

 was no doubt derived. In the South of 

 England the fish goes by the name of 

 Jack, and in Scotland it is the Pick or 

 Gade. It may be noted that Shakespeare 

 does not use the ancient name of Luce, 

 for he makes Falstaff say : "If the young 

 dace be a bait for the old pike, I see no 

 reason, in the law of Nature, but I may 

 snap at him." 



1 he pairing season of Pike is in February 

 and they spawn in March and April. In 

 former times it was behcved by several 

 writers on fish that Pike were the product 

 of spontaneous generation. Izaak Walton 

 seems to have credited this fable, when he 

 remarked : " 'Tis not to be dou]:)ted but 

 that they are bred, some by generation, 

 and some not." That Pike pair and 

 reproduce themselves after the manner of 

 other fresh-water fish does not need 

 assertion. In early spring the sexes may 

 be seen in company, selecting places for 



PhotOi^raph by J, Fyafik/iii Pikv 



SEVERN, MARCH, 1907. 



indigenous 



in 

 Welsh waters. 

 They were prob- 

 ably introduced into Bala Lake some 

 centuries ago, and the mere is now 

 plentifully stocked with them. A speci- 

 men of twenty-five pounds has been 

 recorded as caught from this lake. In- 

 directly, I was the means of providing a 

 nineteen-pound Pike for a Bala fisherman. 

 While trout fishing, I was accosted by a 

 gypsy lad, who said that he had seen a big 

 Pike, and wished to obtain a bait with 

 which to fish for the giant. He was 

 without any small hooks, so I gave him 

 some, and he took a Perch of about a 

 pound, on a worm. With the Perch he 

 fished for the Pike, and brought it to the 

 bank soon after I left the lake. 



A twenty-pound Pike is esteemed a 

 prize among anglers, l:)ut fish of over twice 

 that weight have been captured in British 

 waters. A writer with the pseudonx-m of 

 " Ephemera," i.e. Edward Fitzgibbon, 

 says : "I l:)elieve the largest Pike ever 

 caught in the British Isles was that caught 



