PIKE. 
1003 
The coloration of the Pike is black above, white 
below. The sides are grayish green, with transverse 
bands of greenish yellow, more continuous in the 
young, broken up in old Pike into almost round or 
oval spots, sometimes elongated, like a ribbon, in the 
longitudinal direction of the body. The ground-colour 
of the fins is grayish yellow, waved with a darker tint. 
The anterior margins of the ventral and anal fins and 
the inferior lobe of the caudal are of a purer yellow. 
The iris is yellow, with a dark, grayish brown spot 
both in front of and behind the pupil. From the eye 
two sinuous, greenish yellow stripes run to the hind 
margin of the operculum, and some irregular spots of 
the same colour appear on the lower part of the said 
bone. The snout has an elongated, triangular patch, 
coursed by a longitudinal black stripe, on the sides in 
front of the eyes. On the sides of the body the scales, 
as we have mentioned above, have a naked, crescent- 
shaped or angular spot, with the angle pointing for- 
wards, and of a metallic lustre, witli a dash of yellow 
or white. The ordinary dress of the fish, as described 
above, shows variations dependent on age, the fluctua- 
tions in the supply of food, and the nature of the sur- 
rounding water. Old specimens have a purer, more 
defined coloration. The Pike that live in turbid water 
are always darker than those that inhabit clear lakes 
or streams; and in small lakes with dark water almost 
black specimens have been found. In the inner island- 
belt. of the Baltic small Pike are taken at the beginning 
of winter which have a dark lemon-yellow coloration 
instead of the white tone. The islanders - believe that 
these Pike have just arrived from the outer islands or 
the sea outside, and have therefore conferred upon them 
the name of Nylcindare (new-comers). 
On an examination of the internal organs the liver 
is found to consist of a single lobe, long, obtuse, and 
arched, which lies principally on the left side of the 
body, and extends back to a point, just short of the in- 
sertions of the ventral fins. On the concave upper sur- 
face of the liver, at the extreme front, but to the right, 
lies the gall-bladder. The intestinal canal is simple. 
When the stomach is empty, it apparently composes 
together with the oesophagus a tube of almost uniform 
width, extending to about a line with the beginning of 
the last third of the ventral tins when folded. At. this 
point it. bends abruptly, and with a slight constriction 
at the pylorus is continued in a forward direction by 
the intestine, which advances below its right side to 
the gall-bladder, and bends there with equal abruptness, 
to return in a straight line to the vent. The spleen is 
triangular, and lies close t.o the termination of the sto- 
mach. The gall-duct is long, and enters the intestine 
at some distance below the pylorus. The air-bladder is 
long, almost cylindrical, and is connected with the oeso- 
phagus by a short, and narrow duct from its anterior 
extremity. The testes and ovaries are long, and follow 
the direction of the abdominal cavity. The kidneys, 
which lie above the air-bladder along each side of the 
spinal column, are dark red. The urinary bladder is 
thin, cylindrical, and rather long, and shares with the 
sexual organs a special aperture behind the orifice of 
the intestine. 
The Pike has a very extensive geographical range 
— about the same as the Minnow’s (see above, p. 757) — 
from North-eastern Siberia west to the east, of North 
America. According to Pallas it inhabits the River 
Amoor“, which falls into the Sea of Okhotsk, and the 
Rivers Indigirka and Chatanga, which disembogue into 
the Arctic Ocean. Brehm found it in the lower course 
of the River Obi'', and in the great lakes of the Baraba 
Steppe (the upper basin of the Obi and Irtish) it is ex- 
tremely common, according to Pallas, and attains a 
considerable size. It also occurs in the Caspian Sea, but 
not in Transcaucasia, nor in the Black Sea, though it is 
found in the Sea of Azov and the basin of the Danube. 
It is met with in rivers and lakes throughout Russia, 
North and Central Europe, including Great. Britain and 
Ireland, and Italy, including Sicily (Canestrini) ; but is 
said to be wanting in Greece and on the Pyrenean Pen- 
insula. It- inhabits almost all the waters of Scandinavia; 
but. in Norway Collett has observed that its range, 
like that of the Perch and several other fresh-water 
fishes, is interrupted, the gap extending over the Pro- 
vince of Trondhjem, Nordland, and the whole west coast.. 
Though really belonging to lakes and rivers with fresh 
water, it is also found in the island-belt of the Baltic. 
That salt water is not its true home, appears from the 
fact that among the said islands the Pike shows a de- 
“ Assuming that Pallas here refers to our common Pike. From the Onon, a Daurian tributary of tire Amoor, he describes a “va. 
riety” of a coloration more suggestive of the American Esox nobilior. 
On the Kamchatkan Peninsula, according to Pallas, the Pike is wanting. 
4 Brehm’s Thierleben , 2:te Aufl., Or. Ausg. (1879), Bd. 8, p. 249. 
