236 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



vivid red; when out of season, the green changes to a 

 greyer tint, and the yellow spots become pale. 



Section of the gills of the Pike. 



The Pike spawns about March or April, according to 

 the climate, forwardness of the spring, and other local 

 circumstances, the young females of three or four years 

 old taking the lead, and the dowagers following. For this 

 purpose they quit the open waters in pairs, and retire into 

 the fens, ditches, or shallows, where they deposit their 

 spawn amongst the leaves of aquatic plants ; and during 

 this period the male may often be observed following the 

 female about from place to place, and attending upon her 

 with much apparent solicitude. As many as 80,000 eggs 

 have been counted in one fish. When the spawning-pro- 

 cess is complete, the fish return again into the rivers, and 

 are then for some weeks in a state of partial stupefaction, 

 and unfit for food. In rivers they begin to be in con- 

 dition again about June, and are in their best season in 

 November ; but in still waters the recuperative process is 

 much slower. On the Thames, within the City jurisdic- 

 tion, which extends up to Staines, Pike-fishing is illegal 

 between the 1st of March and the 31st of May. 



