THE PIKE FAMILY. 203 



This recalls the story of the Pike which was said to have 

 attacked the foot of a Polish damsel a performance the 

 more ungallant as the ladies of Poland are celebrated for 

 their pretty ankles. 



'Bentley's Miscellany' for July 1851 gives an account 

 of the assaults of Pike upon the legs of men wading ; and 

 the author has himself had the privilege of being severely 

 bitten above the knee by a fine Thames fish, which 

 sprang off the ground after it was supposed to be dead, 

 and seized him by the thigh where it hung, sinking 

 its teeth deeply into a stick which was used to force open 

 its jaws. 



More examples might easily be adduced ; but the above 

 are sufficient to prove that in rare instances, and when 

 under the influence of either extreme anger or hunger, a 

 large Pike will not hesitate to attack the lords (and ladies) 

 of creation. 



Such being the case, it is hardly necessary to say that it 

 is by no means uncommon for animals, often of large size, 

 to be similarly assaulted, and, in the case of the smaller 

 species, devoured, by this fish. Accounts are on record of 

 otters, dogs, mules, oxen, and even horses being attacked. 

 Poultry are constantly destroyed by the Pike, "the 

 dwellers in the ' Eely Place/ " as Hood punningly says, 

 "having come to Picc-a-dilly :" sometimes the heads of 

 swans diving for food encounter instead the ever-open 

 jaws of this fish, and both are killed ; whilst among the 

 frogs he is the very " King Stork " of the Fable, his reign 



