THE PIKE. 487 
can be regulated, in correspondence with the element through which it may 
move, The swim-bladder, when perfectly distended, occupies nearly the 
entire cavity of the abdomen, and contains a large quantity of air; and in 
addition to this, there is a membrane in the mouth which can be inflated 
through the gills ; these two reservoirs of air affording good substitutes for 
the air-cells so freely distributed within the bones of birds, and having the 
additional advantage of being voluntary in their function. 
“The pectoral tins, though so large when expanded, can be folded into an 
exceedingly slender, neat, and compact form ; but whether they are employed 
in swimming in the closed or expanded state, I have been unable to deter- 
mine.” 
The ancients were well acquainted with the Flying-fish, and in their narra- 
tives even improved upon its powers, as was customary with the voyagers of 
those days, and asserted that, as soon as night came on, this fish left the 
ocean, flew ashore, and slept until morning safe from the attacks of its marine 
enemies. The generic name of exocerus, literally “a sleeper-out,’ refers to 
this supposed habit. About thirty species of Flying-fish are known, mostly 
belonging to the Mediterranean Sea, but others occur in the North Sea and 
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 
THE fierce and voracious PiKE has well earned its titles of Fresh-water 
Shark and River Pirate, 
for though perhaps not one 
whit more destructive to 
animal life than the roach, 
gudgeon, and other harm-. 
less fish, the prey which it 
devours are of larger size, 
and its means of destruc- 
tion are so conspicuous and 
powerful, that its name has 
long been a byword for 
pitiless rapacity. 
The Pike is found in 
almost every English river, 
and, although supposed to 
have been artificially intro- 
duced into our country, has 
multiplied as rapidly as 
any indigenous fish. The Pike is the master of the waters in which it 
resides, destroying without mercy every other fish that happens to come near 
its residence, none seeming able to escape except the perch, whose array of 
sharp spines daunts even the voracious Pike from attempting its capture. As 
if to show that the Pike really desires to eat the perch, and is only withheld 
from so doing by a wholesome dread of its weapons, there is no better bait 
. for a Pike than a young perch from which the dorsal fin has been removed. 
It will even feed upon its own kind, and a young Pike, or Jack as it is then 
called, of three or four inches in length, has little chance of life if it should 
come across one of its larger kindred. 
After hatching, the growth of the young Jack is extremely rapid, and, 
according to Bloch, it will attain a length of ten inches in the first year of 
its life. If well fed, the growth of this fish continues at a tolerably uniform 
rate of about four pounds per year, and this increase will be maintained for 
six or seven successive years. 
_ The voracity of the Pike is too well known to need much comment. A 
tiny Jack of five inches in length has been known to capture and try to eat 
