140 MALACOPTERYGII. 



quent with us, and good food. It is customary with many to take it alive, in a 

 glass of generous wine." — Vol, i. p. 366. 



J. T. Tennent, Esq. supplied me with the following note on this spe- 

 cies : — " With reference to Donovan's remark about the necessity of 

 keeping the water in which they are removed from one place to another 

 in constant agitation, it may be stated that those I have seen were kept 

 in a common bowl of water quietly resting on a table, and never, I be- 

 lieve, intentionally moved except when getting fresh water." 



The Graining ; Leucisciis Lancastriensis, Yarr. 

 The Spined Loach; Gobitis Tcenia, Linn. 



Several very small individuals of the former species occurred to me in the 

 river Learn near Leamington, in July, 1836 ; and in the same month, when using 

 my net for fresh-water mollusca in a drain near Guy's Clift', Warwick [Eng- 

 land], I captured a minute hsh of the latter species, as mentioned in the Zool. 

 Proc. for 1837, and by Mr. Yarrell in his Hist. Brit. Fish. 



Neither of these species has as yet been observed in Ireland. 



Family EsociD^. 

 The Pike, Esox Lucius, Linn., 

 Is common. 



Localities noted : — County of Londonderry ; said to have been taken 

 in " salt-water " between Derry and Culmore (Ordnance Surv.) ; all suit- 

 able lakes in the northern part of the island (Lough Neagh, Lough Derg, 

 &c.) ; County Dublin (Dr. Ball) ; the Shannon (Mr. R. Barklie and the 

 Rev. C. Mayne) ; Loughs Corrib, Mask, and Carra (Mr. M'Calla). 



The pike is most frequently taken by night-lines baited with fish, and 

 is said to be " always good, except in February and March, when they are 

 spawning." Great numbers are, however, taken by means of draught-nets 

 in Lough Neagh, the average weight being from H to 4 lbs. The Rev. 

 C. Mayne, writing from Killaloe in 1838, gave me the names of two gen- 

 tlemen who killed pikes of 49 and 51 lbs. weight in that locality; and 

 also informed me that "in August, 1830, Mr. O'Flanagan (then aged 70) 

 killed with a single rod and bait, in a lake in the County Clare, a pike of 

 78 lbs." In April, 1835, Dr. Ball received from the then Dean of St. 

 Patrick's one of these fishes 4^ feet long and weighing 37 lbs. ; the 

 largest which I have seen in the Belfast market was sent from Lurgan in 

 January, 1851, and believed to have been taken in Lough Neagh; it 

 weighed 36 lbs. 



I have been infonned that larger examples are obtained in small lakes, 

 such as those in the neighbourhood of Downpatrick and Ballynahinch in 

 the County of Down, than in those of greater extent. 



March 22, 1838. — On opening a pike about a foot long, I found a 

 trout (*S'. Fario) of about 5 inches in its stomach. The gastric juice had 

 acted considerably on the half which Avas lowest down, but the upper half 

 was as bright and perfect as when the trout was alive. The victim was 

 just in the same state as I have seen fishes in the stomach of a Goosander. 

 R. Langtry, Esq., informs me that in summer he has often seen pike 

 in " the grass," i. e. in plashy places with the fins of their backs above 

 v^"ater. 



