2 THE PIKE. 



on the back and sides with large yellowish 

 spots ; and when at home amongst the weeds, 

 he is hardly to be distinguished in the wavy 

 masses of verdure around him. His eyes are 

 bright yellow, so placed as to enable him to 

 see what passes above. The fins and tail are 

 a dark purply colour, marked with dark wavy 

 lines. When young, and up to four or five 

 pounds in weight, he is called a Jack ; and 

 when at all hungry, nothing comes amiss to 

 him ; I have had Jack a foot in length seize a 

 bait of half their length, and allow themselves 

 to be lifted out of the water, rather than re- 

 lease their prey. 



The Pike is found almost all over Europe, 

 in ponds, lakes, canals, and rivers, where there 

 are beds of weeds, and will under favourable 

 circumstances attain to an extremely heavy 

 weight and great age. In this country they 

 have rarely exceeded eighty pounds ; but in the 

 Field of Qth June, 1877, there is mention of a 

 monster which weighed a hundred and thirty 

 pounds being caught in the Lake of Con- 

 stance. The largest I have taken weighed 

 twenty-two pounds ; this I caught in the 

 Thames at Great Marlow, in October 1868, 

 with the live-bait-snap drawn at page 62, 

 working it through and along the edges of 

 the weed-beds in the centre of the river. 



From March to the end of June, Jack are 

 out of season, when they resort to back waters 

 that have a direct communication with the 



