i82 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



My friend Mr. White, of North Walsham, Norfolk, one of the 

 finest spinners I ever met with, informed me, that some years 

 ago, he was trolHng in a lake belonging to Lord Suftield, where 

 he hooked a pike which weighed, as he afterwards ascertained, 

 \2.\ lbs. He had nearly succeeded in landing this fish when he felt 

 a violent check', and immediately understood that it had been 

 seized by another of the same species. Mr. White told a friend, 

 who was fishing near him, of what had occurred, and promised to 

 show the new comer, although he should be unable to capture him. 

 Mr. White contrived to draw both fish within a short distance of 

 the bank, and raised the head of the larger one to the top of the 

 water, when he opened his capacious jaws, released his prey, and 

 sunk down again into the depths of the pool. Of course, Mr. White 

 had no opportunity of discovering the weight of this monster, but 

 he unhesitatingly asserts that it exceeded 30 lbs. 



A remarkable instance of the pike's rapidity of digestion 

 was communicated to me by Mr. Henry R. Francis, as having 

 occurred some years ago, whilst he was fishing in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Great Marlow. He observed a pike lying in the 

 weeds in an apparently semi-torpid condition, and succeeded, 

 with the aid of a landing-net, in securing it, when a large eel 

 was found to be sticking in its throat, the tail portion of which 

 was half-chewed up, swallowed, and partially digested, whilst 

 the head, still alive and twisting, protruded from the jaws. 



The same gentleman caught in the Thames a pike weighing 

 9 lbs. with a moorhen in its gullet, by which it was being 

 suffocated ; and on another occasion Mr. Chalmer caught 

 a fish of 5 lbs. that had a smaller one half-swallowed, but 

 made notwithstanding an effort to take his spinning^bait, and 

 was hooked foul in the attempt ! Very recently a 26-lb. pike 

 was taken at Worksop which had two moorhens in its stomach 

 when opened. 



Since the above was written I have been favoured by Captain 

 S. H. Salvin with a curious pendant to one of the anecdotes. 

 Captain Salvin had formerly in his possession a tame cor- 

 morant, which had been for many years trained to catch fish 

 for his master by diving — amongst other odd captures made by 



