POACHERS. 8 1 



pike, birds, and poachers. I put pike first because one 

 4.1b. pike will do more mischief in a season than all the 

 poachers in the district." 



For years, in the columns of the Field, he 

 kept on urging in the most forcible terms the 

 effects of neglecting to wage incessant war on 

 them. On many rivers his words of warning 

 were disregarded, and his predictions were only 

 too soon verified. Sport got worse and worse 

 as pike increased in numbers and size, until 

 now many parts of these streams are of small 

 value, and are occasionally let at a compara- 

 tively low rent to some stranger for a single 

 season. He never takes the water a second 

 season, and the local agent has to advertise 

 again in the hope of catching another flat. 



It may possibly be imagined that the various Voracity of 

 estimates of a pike's capacity have been exag- 

 gerated, and I would therefore give the following 

 examples of the undigested contents of pikes' 

 stomachs as revealed by autopsy: — On the 

 18th April, 1893, wired a pike pin. long; 

 found tail of a partially digested trout quite 

 4m. long protruding from its jaws. On the 

 27th September, 1893, a pike 7-Jlb. was taken 

 in the nets ; the contents of its stomach were 

 as follows : two small pike about pin. long, 

 "nine lamperns, five bullheads, and a trout 

 about i-jlb., with only head partially digested 



G 



pike. 



