CLASS V. PISCES: ORDER 3. TELEOSTEA, 



471 





%ii 



M 



THE EUROPEAN PIKE. 



abundant in the British Islands, though it is hcUeved not to have been indigenous there, but to 

 have been introduced from the Continent some centuries ago. The usual length is from one 

 to two feet, but there seems to be almost no limit to the growth of this fish. Its voracity is 

 proverbial. Mr. Jesse says : " Eight pikes consumed nearly eight hundred gudgeons in three 

 weeks, and the appetite of one of these was insatiable. One morning I threw to him, one after 

 another, five roach, each about four inches in length ; he swallowed four of them, and kept the 

 fifth in his mouth for about a quarter of an hour, when it also disappeared." 



" Digestion in the pike goes on very rapidly, and they are therefore most expensive fish to 

 maintain. In default of a sufiicient quantity of other fishes to satisfy them, moor-hens, ducks, 

 and indeed any animals of small size, whether alive or dead, are constantly consumed ; their bold- 

 ness and voracity are equally proverbial. Dr. Plot relates that at Lord Gower's canal at Trent- 

 ham, a pike seized the head of a swan as she was feeding under water and gorged so much of it 

 as killed them both ; the servants perceiving the head of the swan under water for a longer time 

 than usual, took the boat, and found the pike and swan both dead. Gesner relates that a pike 

 in the Rlionc seized on the lips of a mule that was brought to drink, and that the beast drew the 

 fish out before it could disengage itself. Walton was assured by his friend M. Segrave, who kept 

 tame otters, that he had known a pike in extreme hunger, fight with one of his otters for a carp 

 that the other had cauiiht, and was then brinfrinsx out of the water; and with the old adage 

 adds, ' It is a hard thing to persuade the belly, because it has no ears.' 



"A Avoman in Poland had her foot seized by a pike as she was washing clothes in a pool, and 

 the same thing is said to have happened at Killingwortli pond, near Coventry. The late head- 

 keeper of Richmond Park was once washing liis hand over the sides of a boat in the great pond 

 in that park, when a pike made a dart at it, and he had but just time to withdraw it." Mr. Jesse 



