TEE PIKE. 121 



with an infant child in its stomach. Ducks, geese, and water hens are all sometimes found in 

 the stomachs of these fish. Instances have been known of a Pike swallowing one of its own 

 species scarcely smaller than itself, but then the devoured fish can only be taken into the body 

 of the devourer gradually, as digestion progresses. The more ordinary food of the Pike, however, 

 is furnished by frogs and small fishes. According to Mr. Jesse, eight Pike, of about five pounds" 

 weight each, consumed 800 Gudgeons in three weeks. They readily take Roach and Carp, Tench, 

 and probably most fresh-water fishes, though they are believed to avoid Perch and Sticklebacks. 



The Pike is supposed to first spawn when it is three years old. The spawning season lasts for 

 nbout three months, but the ova are usually deposited in March. A single Pike, weighing thirty-five 

 pounds, may contain more than 270,000 eggs. The young are hatched in about a month, but compara- 

 tively few reach maturity. The Pike is well known to travel over land, and annual migrations of the 

 fish have been recorded. They come in the spring in great shoals out of the Isle of Ely into 

 the river Cam. In the earlier times of history, the Pike appears to have been rare in England, 

 though the occurrence of its bones in the peat of the fens may be taken as evidence that it is a native 

 fish and has not been artificially introduced. In former times Pike were held in greater 

 favour as food than now, and they were fattened by being kept in cages in the river Cam, often selling 

 for large prices. The Pike is said to be at its best when it has preyed upon the Smelt. In Lapland, 

 it is dried for winter use. The old families of Lucie, of Cockermouth, and Egremont, have on 

 their arms three silver pikes on a red field. The Pike has a long and somewhat compressed body, with 

 a rounded back, the snout is depressed, broad and long, but not so long as the lower jaw. The body 

 is covered with small cycloid scales ; the lateral line is not well marked. There are no barbels ; the 

 dorsal fin is placed far back on the tail, and is opposite to the anal fin. The caudal fin is broad 

 and forked. The teeth in the mandible form a single series, and vary in size. Teeth also occur in 

 bands on the pre-maxillary bones, vomer, palatine bones, and hyoid, but there are no teeth on the 

 maxillary bones. There are no scales on the sub-operculum and lower part of the opercular bone. 

 The pseudo-branchia, or gills on the operculum supplied with arteiial blood which is after- 

 wards conveyed to the eye, have a glandular character, and are covered by the mucus membrane 

 which lines the gill cavity. There ai-e no pyloric appendages to the stomach ; the air-bladder is 

 simple. The colour of the head and back is olive-brown, the sides become paler, and the belly is 

 silvery white ; the body is mottled over with more or less round spots, which sometimes form cross-bars 

 on the tail. The dorsal, anal, and caudal fins are generally spotted with brown. The Piko often sleeps 

 or remains in an unconscious state, in quiet parts of rivers ; when thus dozing it may be taken with 

 a kind of noose. 



FAMILY XIII. UMBRIM!. 



The Umbridae are known only from the genus Umbra, Umbra krameri is a small fish three or 

 four inches long, which is found in stagnant water in Austria and Hungary, and has occurred in the 

 neighbourhood of Odessa. The Umbra limi from the fresh waters of the United States is rather 

 smaller. The dorsal fin in these fishes is rather long, the ventral fins are below its commencement, 

 and the small anal fin is below its termination. The caudal fin is rounded. The head is broad and 

 blunt, with short jaws armed with small slender teeth. 



FAMILY XIV. SCOMBRESOCID^E. 



This family comprises genera which are characterised by having a series of keeled scales 

 along each side of the belly. The dorsal fin is opposite the anal fin, and both are placed in the caudal 

 region of the body. The lower pharyngeal bones are united together. The intestine is qnite straight, 

 without a distinct stomach. The air-bladder, which is large, is sometimes cellular, but has no 

 pneumatic duct ; it is occasionally absent. 



The genus Belone is well known, from a multitude of species which chiefly frequent 

 tropical waters, but are widely distributed. Many species are found in the West Indies and 

 adjacent coasts of Brazil, and one (Belone tamiata), which has the rays of the dorsal fin all 

 of about the same length, is found in the river Capin, in Brazil. Other forms, like Belone 

 euxini, are limited to the Black Sea; several, such as Belone acus, are found only in the 

 Mediterranean. One species frequents the coast of Portugal, and the Common Garfish (Belone 

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