214 THE ANGLERrNATURALIST. 



the direction of the line, that a Pike which has taken the 

 bait is lying, it is, according to a clever writer on this sub- 

 ject *, a certain sign that he has not yet pouched. As a rule, 

 however, it is a mistake to suppose that bubbles are occa- 

 sioned by fish ; and when they are so caused, Captain Wil- 

 liamson considers they may be regarded as a symptom that 

 the fish will not bite, being already satiated, and the bub- 

 bles arising from the digestive process. " The bubblers," he 

 says, " will always refuse the bait. Wounded fishes, espe- 

 cially Jacks, evince their pain in this manner, as they do 

 also their disquietude when unable to swallow their prey." 

 I confess it appears to me more probable that the bubbles 

 in this case arise rather from the uneasiness of the fish at 

 being unable to get rid of the bait already pouched and 

 the hooks of which have begun perhaps to be felt or from 

 the tickling of the line in the throat and jaws. 



A ludicrous circumstance once happened in the feeding 

 of two Pike kept in a glass vivarium. A bait was thrown 

 in about midway between the fish, when each simul- 

 taneously darted forward to secure it, the result being 

 that the smaller fish fairly rushed into the open jaws of 

 the larger, where it remained fixed, and only extricated 

 itself with difficulty and after a lapse of some seconds. 



As instances of the attacks of Pike upon the larger 



animals, Dr. Genzik informs me that he once saw a fox 



caught by an immense pike, in the Great Rosenberg Tank, 



* Captain Williamson, The Complete Angler's Vade-Mecum, p. 194. 



