132 THE CO\fPLETE ANGLER. 



But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be 

 doubted, that a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind that 

 shall be bigger than his belly or throat will receive, and swallow 

 a part of him, and let the other part remain in his mouth till 

 the swallowed part be digested, and then swallow that other 

 part, that was in his mouth, and so put it over by degrees : 

 which is not unlike the ox, and some other beasts, taking their 

 meat, not out of their mouth immediately into their belly, but 

 first into some place betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it by 

 degrees after, which is called chewing the cud. And, doubtless, 

 Pikes will bite when they are not hungry ; but, as some think, 

 even for very anger", when a tempting bait comes near to them. 



And it is observed that the Pike will eat venomous things, 

 as some kind of frogs are,* and yet live without being harmed 



in Barn-Meer (a large standing water in Cheshire) was an ell long, and 

 weighed thirty-five pounds, which he brought to the Lord Cholmondeley : 

 his lordship ordered it to be turned into a canal in the garden, wherein 

 were abundance of several sorts of fish. About twelve months after, his 

 lordship drawed the canal, and found that this overgrown Pike had de- 

 voured all the fish, except one large Carp that weighed between nine and 

 ten pounds, and that was bitten in several places. The Pike, was then put 

 into the canal again, together with abundance of fish with him to feed 

 upon, all which he devoured in less than a year's time ; and was observed 

 by the gardener and workmen there, to take the ducks, and other water- 

 fowl, under water. Whereupon they shot magpies and crows, and threw 

 them into the canal, which the Pike took before their eyes : of this they 

 acquainted their lord, who, thereupon, ordered the slaughterman to fling 

 in calves' bellies, chickens' guts, and such like garbage to him, to prey 

 upon ; but being soon after neglected, he died, as supposed, for want of 

 food." 



In Dr Plot's History of Staffordshire, 246, are sundry relations of Pike of 

 great magnitude ; one in particular caught in the Thames, an ell and two 

 inches long. 



The following story, containing farther evidence of the voracity of this 

 fish, with the addition of a pleasant circumstance, I met with in Fuller's 

 Wort/lies, Lincolnshire, page 144. 



" A cub Fox, drinking out of the river Arnus in Italy, had his head 

 seized on by a mighty Pike, so that neither could free themselves, but were 

 ingrappled together. In this contest, a young man runs into the water, 

 takes them out both alive, and carrieth them to the Duke of Florence, 

 whose palace was hard by. The porter would not admit him, without a 

 promise of sharing his fall half in what the duke should give him ; to which 

 he, hopeless otherwise of entrance, condescended. The duke, highly 

 affected with the rarity, was about g'ving him a good reward, which the 

 other refused, desiring his highness would appoint one of his guard to give 

 him a hundred lashes, that so his porter might have fifty, according to his 

 composition. And here my iutell g.-nce leaveth me how much farther the 

 jest was followed " 



The same author relates, from a book entitled, Vox Piscit, printed in 

 1026, that one Mr Anderson, a townsman and merchant of Newcastle, 

 talking with a friend on Newcastle bridge, and fingering his ring, lot it fall 

 into the river; but it having been swallowed by a fish, and the fish after- 

 ward taken, the ring was found and restored to him. Worthies, Nor- 

 thumberland 310. Alike story is, by Herodotus, related of Polycrates 

 king of Sam os. 



* That either frogs or toads are poisonous is not quite correct, for though 

 the secretion from the pustules of the toad is somewhat acrid, it cannot 

 justly be called venomous. J. It. 



