GLASS V. PISCES: ORDER 3. TELEOSTEA. 
THE EUROPEAN PIKE. 
abundant in the British Islands, thongli it is believed not to have been indigenous there, but to 
have been introduced from the Continent some centuries ago. The usual length is from one 
to two feet, but there seems to be almost no limit to the growth of this fish. Its voracity is 
proverbial. Mr. Jesse says: "Eight pikes consumed nearly eight hundred gudgeons in three 
weeks, and the appetite of one of these was insatiable. One morning I threw to him, one after 
another, five roach, each about four inches in length ; he swallowed four of them, and kept the 
fifth in his mouth for about a quarter of an hour, when it also disappeared." 
" Digestion in the pike goes on very rapidly, and they are therefore most expensive fish to 
maintain. In default of a sufiicicnt quantity of other fishes to satisfy them, moor-hens, ducks, 
and indeed any animals of small size, whether alive or dead, are constantly consumed; their bold- 
ness and voracity are equally proverbial. Dr. Plot relates that at Lord Gower's canal at Trent- 
ham, a pike seized the head of a swan as she was feeding imder water and gorged so much of it 
as killed them both ; the servants perceiving the head of the swan under water for a longer time; 
than usual, took the boat, and found the pike and swan both dead. Gesner relates that a pike 
in the Rhone seized on the lips of a mule that was brought to drink, and that the beast drew the 
fish out before it could disengage itself. Walton was assured by his friend M. Segrave, who kept 
tame otters, that he had known a pike in extreme hunger, fight with one of his otters for a carp 
that the other had caught, and was then bringing out of the water ; and with the old adage 
adds, 'It is a hard thing to persuade the belly, because it has no ears.' 
" A woman in Poland had her foot seized by a pike as she was washing clothes in a pool, and 
the same thing is said to have happened at Killingworth pond, near Coventry. The late head- 
keeper of Richmond Park was once washing his hand over the sides of a boat in the great pond 
in that park, when a pike made a dart at it, and he had but just time to withdraw it." Mr. Jesse 
