The Scottish Natiiraltst. 
The young powans I have taken in great numbers in small creeks 
in the month of July. They were then about two inches long, so 
that they probably hatch out about February, i.e.^ about the same 
time as the trout and salmon. 
Their food consists, as far as I have been able to ascertain, of 
small entomostraca, along with a few minute beetles and small 
worms, with which, and a mass of soft green weed, their stomachs 
are often quite distended. The powan has a strong smell, some- 
what like that of the sparling, and when they float in great shoals 
on the surface of the water, as is their custom in summer and 
autumn, the surrounding air for a considerable distance is tainted 
with their scent. 
Owing to their sluggishness, and this habit of lying on the sur- 
face of the water, they constitute a favourite food of the larger 
gulls and cormorants, and are also ready victims to the pike and 
other voracious fishes. 
On an average, this handsome fish does not exceed half-a-poand 
in weight, but they occasionally attain to as much as two pounds. 
ESOX lucius, Linne, the Pike or Gedd. Common through- 
out the whole loch, but chiefly frequenting weedy bays and back- 
waters near the mouths of streams. The pike spawns in April,, 
depositing the ova on sticks and weeds in the shallow waters. 
The young are found in late summer about 4 or 5 inches long. 
This fish grows to a great size, the heaviest I have seen and can 
vouch for, being 24 lbs.; but one came ashore dead a few years 
ago near Luss, which was estimated at over 40 lbs. ; and Yarrell 
records a specimen from this loch weighing 79 lbs. Yarrell does 
not give his authority for this monster, but I believe it is recorded 
in the Edinburgh Philosophical Jour^ial. 
It has been generally assumed that the pike is not indigenous 
to this country, but I know of no evidence to warrant such a be- 
lief of greater weight than some old rhymes ; and the very extensive 
geographical range of the species tends materially to negative the 
assumption. 
As is well known, the pike has a bad character for its voracity,, 
which, from my own observation and the numerous tales of 
anglers and others, I fully believe it deserves ; but Mr. David 
Robertson has lately endeavoured to show that the pike is physi- 
cally incapable of being a very voracious feeder, and adduces, 
evidence of some weight in support of this view. 
