180 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Series I. SONY FISHES. Family ESOCID& t- 



Order II. MALACOPTEEYOII ABDOMINALES *. Genus ESOX J. 



THE PIKE. 



(Esox Indus J.) 



Characteristics of the Pike Family. Head depressed, large, oblong, 

 blunt. Body elongated, rounded on the back; sides compressed, 

 covered with scales. Dorsal fin placed very far back, over anal fin. 

 Jaws, palatine bones, and vomer furnished with teeth of various sizes. 



Contains only one genus, Esox, the characteristics of which are 

 consequently similar to those above named. 



THE Pike, from its high rank as a game fish, as well as 

 from its edible qualities, deserves to command next to the 

 Salmon and Trout the attention of anglers; but whilst 

 the habits and history of the latter have been made, over 

 and over again, the subject of elaborate treatises and mi- 

 nute exhaustive investigations, those of the former if not 

 as important, at least equally interesting have been passed 

 over for the most part with merely superficial notice. 



* " Abdominal soft-finned fishes " (p. 37). t The Family of the Pikes. 

 \ Esox, a Pike ; luciw, the Pike, Latin names. 



