THE PIKE FAMILY. 199 



able size inside the first, from the mouth of which the line 

 proceeded. This fish it was also found necessary to open, 

 when, extraordinary to state, a third Pike, of about f Ib. 

 weight, and already partly digested, was discovered in the 

 stomach of the second. This last fish was, of course, the 

 original taker of the bait, having been itself subsequently 

 pouched by a later comer, to be, in its turn also, after- 

 wards seized and gorged. 



Occurrences of a somewhat similar nature are by no 

 means rare ; one striking example has been already men- 

 tioned, and on several occasions I have myself taken Pike 

 with others in their stomach, but I never remember to 

 have met with a well-authenticated instance in which the 

 cannibal propensities of the fish were so strongly and 

 singularly displayed as in that above referred to. 



Of the indiscriminating character of the Pike's appetite 

 a more amusing illustration could not perhaps be given 

 than the following, communicated to me by Mr. Clifton, 

 who was an eye-witness of the occurrence : Upon a 

 piece of water belonging to Wandle House, Wandsworth, 

 some toy vessels were being sailed, at the stern of one of 

 which was attached a small boat fancifully decorated with 

 green and gilding. As the little craft swept briskly 

 across the pool, with her boat in tow, a Pike suddenly 

 darted from the water and grasped the latter in his jaws, 

 retreating as instantaneously towards the bottom, and well 

 nigh capsizing the whole flotilla in his efforts to drag his 

 capture along with him. To this task, however, his strength 



