ESOCID^. 141 



sufEcIent to supply tlie rich, consequently pike were not so plentiful. As, on 

 the other hand, the salmon fisheries were much more ahundant in those days 

 than they are at the present time, this would account for the high price of pike 

 kept in stews, which could only have been within the means of the wealthy should 

 they have to purchase them. If we look at the geographical distribution of this 

 fish it certainly ought to be indigenous, while, so far back as the reign of Edgar, 

 we are told by Leland that one of large size was taken in Remesmere, Hunting- 

 donshire. In heraldry the luce or pike occurs in the arms of the Lucy or Lucie 

 family so far back as the reign of Henry II. 



Habits. — This strong, active and voracious fish possesses an omnivorous 

 appetite, consuming its smaller neighbours, including those of its own species, 

 and often does not hesitate to fatally mutilate such as are too large for it to 

 consume. It prefers slow-flowing, weedy rivers, ponds and lakes, but its haunts 

 vary with the season of the year and the natjire of the water it inhabits. It 

 swims higher in fine warm weather, and may sometimes be seen basking or 

 sleeping at or near the surface, while in winter it keeps at greater depths, and they 

 have sometimes been found associating together in considerable numbers in some 

 sheltered situations. While an annual migration in spring-time has been observed 

 in the Cam ; into which river they come in shoals, doubtless from the fens in the 

 neighbourhood of Ely where they are bred (R. Sheppard). 



It prefers silent, still, or placid waters where there is abundance of weeds and 

 flags, or reeds, docks, bullrushes, water-lilies, and broad-leaved vegetation : or it 

 will lurk in the shallows among weeds, or where a wall projects into the water, 

 or behind a sunken tree or other suitable object. Its appetite is almost insatiable : 

 it does not refuse the frog, the vole or water-rat, the common house-rat, plump 

 puppies just opening their eyes, tender kittens, even the weasel (Field, October, 

 1882), a fox (Dr. Genzik), and in Dr. Crull's Present State of Muscovy (1698) 

 it is mentioned that one of these fishes had an infant child in its stomach. Thfe 

 unwary duck* or duckling, gosling, or even geese which swim across its haunts, a 

 swallow skimming along the surface of the water (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1834!, vi, 

 p. 400), the dabchick, the coot, and the moorhen alike fall victims ; it has even 

 been known to lay hold of a swan by the head occasioning the death of both 

 (Hardwicke's Science Gossip, 1866, p. 139), while one of only 2| lb. weight 

 seized a tame cormorant which was engaged fishing and choked itself while 

 endeavouring to swallow it. When emboldened by hunger a pike has been known 

 to attack otters, dogs, asses, mules, oxen, horses, and even men, boys bathing 

 have been seriously injured by their teeth, and one embayed by falling water, 

 finding itself being attacked by a man, became in its turn the assailant, and did 

 not retire beaten from the conflict. 



It will also take inanimate objects, as a toy-boat which was being sailed across 

 a pool : or a piece of cork attached to a string, and once having seized an object 

 it holds on most tenaciously. It is said to distrust sticklebats, due, it is supposed, 

 to the number of young pike which become choked by these spiny little fishes : 

 while perch are believed not to be a desired food, although it takes it as a bait. 

 It has been known to seize a toad flung into the water, but it is imniediately 

 rejected : and sometimes it similarly declines to swallow the rat. 



An account was given in the Field (Sept. 2nd, 1882) of two pike each weigh- 

 ing about 10 lb. dashing at the same time at a live bait, and then at one another 

 fighting like a couple of dogs. Mr. Stanley (Zool. 1845, p. 1035), on December 

 25th, 1843, observed a pike lashing the water with his tail. On pulling it out he 

 found two pike of about 1 Ib.weight each, the head of one being entirely within the 



* A cnrious incident occurred on the River Snir, near TuUa Bridge, about a mile from Thurles. 

 A number of ducks were swimming on the river, when one of them, uttering a loud " quack," was 

 seen suddenly to disappear. Some young men, going through curiosity to the spot where the duck 

 had vanished, found near the bank of the river an enormous pike floundering about, and so utterly 

 helpless that they bad very little difficulty in landing it, when they found the duck which it appeared 

 the pike had seized, but was unable to swallow. The monster, whose insatiable voracity had caused 

 its death, weighed nearly forty pounds. 



