736 PISCES—PIKE. 
According to the common saying, these fish were introduced into Engiand 
in the reign of Henry the Eighth, in 1537. They were so rare, that a pike 
was sold for double the price of a house-lamb, in February, and a pickerel 
for more than a fat capon. 
All writers who treat of this species bring instances of its vast voracious- 
ness. We have known one that was choked by attempting to swallow one 
of its own species that proved too large a morsel. Yet its jaws are very 
loosely connected; and have on each side an additional bone like the jaw of 
a viper, which renders them capable of great distention when it swallows its 
prey. It does not confine itself to feed on fish and frogs; it will devour 
the water-rat, and draw down the young ducks as they are swimming about. 
At the marquis of Stafford’s canal at Trentham, England, a pike seized 
the head of a swan, as she was feeding under water, and gorged so much of 
it as killed them both. The servants perceiving the swan with its head 
under water for a longer time than usual, took the boat, and found both swan 
and pike dead. 
But there are instances of its fierceness still more surprising, and which, 
irdeed, border a little on the marvellous. Gesner relates, that a famished 
pike in the Rhone seized on the lips of a mule, that was brought to water 
and that the beast drew the fish out before it could disengage itself; that 
people have been bit by these voracious creatures while they were washing, 
their legs; and that they will even contend with the otter for its prey, and 
endeavour to force it out of its mouth. : 
Pike spawn in March or April, according to the coldness or warmth of.the 
weather. When they are in high season, their colors are very fine, being 
green, spotted with bright yellow ; and the gills are of a most vivid and full 
red. When out of season, the green changes to gray, and the yellow spots 
turn pale. ‘ 
The head is very flat; the upper jaw broad, and is shorter than the lower; 
the under jaw turns up a little at the end, and is marked with minute punc- 
tures. The teeth are very sharp, disposed not ‘only in the front of the up- 
per jaw, but in both sides of the lower, in the roof of the mouth, and often 
the tongue. The slit of the mouth, or the gape, is wide; the eyes small. 
The dorsal fin is placed very low on the back, and consists of twenty-one 
rays; the pectoral, of fifteen; the ventral, of eleven; the anal of eighteen. 
The tail is bifurcated. 
