322 THE PIKE 



of hooks are fastened by snoods to each line, the advantages of a quiet capture can 

 hardly be overrated. 



The colour of the Gar-fish is dark bluish green on the back and upper part of the 

 head, fading gradually on the sides into the silvery white of the abdomen. Its usual 

 length is about two feet. 



^ 



QAR-PI8H. BeUme vulgant. 



THE fierce and voracious PIKE has well earned its titles of Fresh-water Shark and 

 River Pirate, for though perhaps not one whit more destructive to animal life than the 

 roach, gudgeon, and other harmless fish, the prey which it devours are of larger size, and 

 its means of destruction are so conspicuous and powerful, that its name has long been a 

 by-word for pitiless rapacity. 



The Pike is found in almost every English river, and although supposed to have been 

 artificially introduced into our country, has multiplied as rapidly as any indigenous fish. 

 The Pike is the master of the waters in which it resides, destroying without mercy every 

 other fish that happens to come near its residence, none seeming able to escape except the 

 perch, whose array of sharp spines daunts even the voracious Pike from attempting its 

 capture. As if to show that the Pike really desires to eat the perch, and is only withheld 

 from doing so by a wholesome dread of its weapons, there is no better bait for a Pike than 

 a young perch from which the dorsal fin has been removed. It will even feed upon its 

 own kind, and a young Pike, or Jack as it is then called, of three or four inches in length, 

 has little chance of life if it should come across one of its larger kindred. 



At the beginning of spring, the Pike leaves the larger rivers, and ascends the creeks 

 and narrow ditches in order to deposit its spawn. Many fine fish are captured at that time 

 of year by penning them in with a couple of nets, which are gradually approached towards 

 each other until the fish is inclosed between them. 



After hatching, the growth of the young Jack is extremely rapid, and according to 

 Bloch, it will attain a length of ten inches in the first year of its life. If well fed, the 

 growth of this fish continues at a tolerably uniform rate of about four pounds per year, 

 and this increase will be maintained for six or seven successive years. 



The voracity of the Pike is too well known to need much comment. A tiny Jack of 

 five inches in length has been known to capture and try to eat a gudgeon of its own size, 

 and to swim about quite unconcernedly, with the tail of its victim protruding from its 

 mouth. Had it been suffered to live, it would probably have finished the gudgeon in 

 course of time, as the head was found to have been partially digested. Three water-rats 

 have been found in the stomach of one Pike, accompanied by the remains of a bird too 

 far decomposed to be recognisable, but supposed to be the remnants of a duck. An 

 opinion was once prevalent, and still exists in some places, that the Pike would not eat the 



