HABITS OF THE PIKE IN EUEOPE. 463 



Germany, not only in the high monntain regions, but along the sea-coast of Northern Germany, 

 and ev^en close to the shores of the Baltic. The highest vertical distribution of the Pike occurs on 

 the northern side of the Alps, in Tyrol, in various lakes, from that of Tristac, 2,670 feet, to that 

 of Halden, 3,618 feet. On the south side of the Alps it occurs in certain lakes of the Tyrol, and 

 in the Lake of Eeschen, 4,637 feet, which is apparently the loftiest point of its distribution. In 

 Switzerland, according to Tschudi, it ranges to the height of 3,398 feet." 



The spawning time of the Pike, as is shown in an elaborate table presented by Wittmack, 

 often begins in the latter part of February, and lasts, depending somewhat upon temperature and 

 the weather, into March and April, sometimes even into May. It deposits its eggs upon water- 

 plants-, especially rushes and grasses. Examples one-third of a meter long are capable of repro- 

 ducing their kind. 



The predacious nature of the Pike is proverbial. It eats nearly all other kinds of fishes, 

 sparing not even its own species, and also devours frogs, mice, rats, and even young ducks. 

 Although it is voracious in its attacks upon its prey, it remains generally in quiet and seems to 

 prefer quiet and slow-flowing waters rather than swift streams. 



Wittmack gives a number of statements from authorities in different parts of Germany 

 showing the annual rate of growth of the Pike, which appears to vary from two to three pounds, 

 the maximum size attained being from forty-five to seventy pounds. He cites one instance in 

 which, in two summers, a few individuals, liberated in a pond full of a species of carp, grew from 

 the weight of one and three-quarters to that of about ten pounds. 



Beneckb on the spawning of the Pike. — The breeding habits of the Pike are still fur- 

 ther described as follows by Professor Benecke, of Konigsberg : 



" The Pike inhabits all of our waters with the exception of shallow and rapid brooks. It 

 prefers clear, quiet water with clean bottom ; is usually active at night and quiet in the daytime ; 

 lurks among plants in convenient corners, whence it rushes forth with arrow-like velocity. It lives 

 a hermit life, only consorting in pairs during the spawning season. The pairs of fish then resort 

 to shallow places upon meadows and banks which have been overflowed, and, rubbing violently 

 upon each other, deposit their spawn in the midst of powerful blows of their tails. The female 

 deposits generally about 100,000 yellowish eggs, about three millimeters in diameter, out of which 

 in the course of fourteen days the young with their great umbilical sacs escape. The spawning 

 time occurs in Eastern Prussia in the months of February to April, and occasionally the spawning 

 of the first Pikes occurs before the departure of the ice. When well nourished the Pike grows 

 very rapidly, and in the first year often reaches the length of more than a foot, and sometimes 

 eventually the length of seven or eight feet. Only the young, rapidly growing Pikes are eatable, 

 the old ones being dry and tasteless." 



Pike in the Great Lakes. — In his excursion around the Great Lakes for the purpose of 

 gathering fishery statistics, Mr. Kumlien obtained the following notes upon the abundance of the 

 Pike: 



" On the western shore of Lake Michigan it appears to be resident in those portions of the 

 lake off Eacine, and is very rarely taken in gill-nets. It is, however, not known to Waukegan or 

 Kenosha fishermen. At the west end of Lake Erie individuals are at rare intervals taken in 

 pound-nets set in the deepest water. About Sandusky and vicinity, like the Muskellunge, they 

 are said to be raiher rare, though a few taken in winter around Put-in Bay Island are there 

 regarded as residents of cold, deep water. Above Cleveland they are not known to the fishermen, 

 but in the vicinity of Ashtabula considerable numbers are sometimes taken in spring — one or two 

 hundred pounds at a haul of a pound-net. On the south shore of Lake Erie very few are taken in 



