154 FEESH-WA.TEE AQUAEIA. 



tte Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, is said to have only 

 increased l§lb. in ten years. On the other hand, where Pike 

 have been better fed, they have been known to increase in 

 weight as much as 41b. every year until they arrive at maturity, 

 when they generally begin to get lighter. 



Pike commence to spawn when about three years old, and 

 deposit their ova during March and May among the aquatic 

 plants growing in those streams and ditches which they 

 are able to ascend. During the breeding season these fish are 

 generally seen in pairs. The young are hatched in. about a 

 month. The late Mr. Frank Buckland found in a fish which 

 weighed 321b., and which measured 3ft. Sin. in length, no less 

 than 695,200 eggs. 



When at liberty Pike will feed upon almost anything 

 which they find alive in the water, providing that it is not 

 altogether too big. They will not, however, swallow a toad. 

 Sometimes they will take fish nearly as large as themselves, 

 devouring as much of their prey at one meal as they can, 

 and trusting to their great powers of digestion to be able 

 to finish it at another; their mouths, for the time, being 

 turned into larders. The principal food of Pike, how- 

 ever, is frogs and fish of all kinds. In captivity these fish 

 may be fed upon minnows and lob-worms. I have never 

 been able to induce any of my tame Pike to eat dead fish 

 or raw meat. 



Pike, small enough for the aquarium, may be caught either 

 in a net, or by fishing for them with a large worm placed 

 upon a single hook. Pike can be separated from other fish 

 in the same aquarium by means of the glass division already 

 recommended for perch (pp. 135-6) and black bass. 



The "Water-wolf," as this fish is well called, is really very 

 handsome. It has a long and rather compressed body, 

 uniform in depth fi'om just behind the eyes to the com- 

 mencement of the dorsal fin, when it suddenly becomes much 

 nan-ower. The scales are small, and the lateral line is not 

 very distinct. The dorsal fin is placed very far back, and 

 just over the anal fin. The caudal fin is broad, strong, and 

 rather deeply forked; the pectoral and the ventral fins are 



