194 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



Nobbes considers that when a pike moves up stream after 

 being struck it is a sign of a large fish, and vice versL 



Should the troller find that a considerable proportion of fish 

 refuse to pouch after taking, it is a clear sign that they are not 

 on the feed in earnest — in fact, are only dilly-dallying with the 

 bait for amusement. 



For when they are in earnest, there is no mistake about the 

 matter. Your pike is the true cosmopolitan in his feeding — 

 fish, flesh, and fowl are alike acceptable to him ; animal, vege- 

 table, and mineral — his charity embraces them all. Watches, 

 rings, spoons, plummets, and other articles have been frequently 

 taken from the pike's maw ; and several authors have asserted 

 that it also feeds upon the pickerel-weed, a common species of 

 water plant. I have often known pike to run at and seize the 

 lead of a spinning trace ; and on one occasion, at Newlock-on- 

 Thames, Mr. Francis caught a fish which had thus attempted 

 to swallow his lead, and which was entangled and held fast by 

 the gimp lapping round behind the gill. 



The opinion entertained by our ancestors of the pike's dis- 

 crimination of taste, may be gathered from the following receipt 

 for a savoury mess for him, given in an old and, I believe, rare 

 book, ' The Jewel House of Art and Nature, &c.,' by Sir Hugh 

 Plat, of Lincoln's Inn, Knight, temp. 1653 : — 



Fill a sheep's gut with small unslaked limestones, and tie the 

 same well at both ends that no water get therein, and if any pike 

 devour it (as they are ravening fish, and very likely to do) she dieth 

 in a short time ; you may fasten it to a string if you please, and so 

 let it float upon the water. Also the liver of every fish is a good 

 bait to catch any fish of the same kind. 



Nothing, in short, that he can by any means get into his 

 stomach, which has been described as being between that of 

 an ostrich and a shark, comes amiss to the pike, and even 

 imperial man has on more than on one occasion narrowly 

 escaped being laid under contribution to his larder. 



The best authenticated instance of attempted manslaughter 

 on the part of the pike is one which occurred, within a 



