186 



THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



AIMOBIAL BEAIilXGS OP THE LUCrES. 



Nobbes suggests that the name Lucius is derived " either 

 a lucendo, from ' shining in the waters/ or else (which is 

 more probable) from Lukos, the Greek word for lupus : 

 for aSj" says he, " the wolf is the most ravenous and cruel 

 amongst beasts, so the Pike is the most greedy and devour- 

 ing among fishes. So that Lupus Piscis, tho^ it be proper 

 for the Sea-wolf, yet it is often used for the Pike itself, 

 the Fresh- water Wolf.^' 



To the ancient Greeks, so far as we are aware, the Pike 

 was a stranger; or if known, has escaped notice in the 

 writings of Aristotle. In the works of several Latin au- 

 thors it is mentioned, and is stated to have been taken of 

 very great size in the Tiber ; but it has been doubted by 

 naturalists whether this fish — the Esox of Pliny — is syn- 

 onymous with the Esox, or Pike, of modern ichthyology. 

 One of the earliest writers by whom the Pike is distinctly 

 chronicled is Ausonius, living about the middle of the fourth 

 century, and who thus asperses its character ; — 



