[ i?i ] 



THE COMMON PIKE*. 



These fish are found in considerable plenty in 

 most of the lakes in Europe, Lapland, and the 

 northern parts of Persia, where they sometimes 

 measure upwards of eight feet in length. 



There is scarcely any fish of its size in the world 

 that in voracity can equal the Pike. One of them 

 has been known to choak itself in attempting to 

 swallow another of its own species that proved too 

 large a morsel : and it has been well authenticated 

 that, in Lord Gower's canal at Treniham, a Pike 

 seized the head of a swan as she was feeding under 

 water, and gorged so much of it as killed them 

 bothf. 



" I have been assured (says Walton) by my friend 

 Mr. Seagrave, who keeps tame otters, that he has 

 known a Pike, in extreme hunger, fight with one of 

 his Otters for a Carp that the otter had caught, and 

 was then bringing out of the water." 



Boulker, in his Art of Angling, says that his 

 father caught a Pike that was an ell long, and 

 weighed thirty-five pounds, which he presented to 

 Lord Cholmondeley. His lordship directed it to 

 be put into a canal in his garden, which at that 

 time contained a great quantity of fish. Twelve 

 months afterwards the water was drawn off, and it 



* Synonyms.— Esoxlucius. !/««.— Pike or Pickcrell. Will. Icb, 

 — Venn. Brit. Zool. 'vol. 3. tab. 63. 



t Ptnn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 3:1. 



