PIKE. 
1005 
with prey. After two hours had elapsed, the tails of the 
victims had disappeared into the maws of their devourers. 
The strength of the Pike is fully proportionate to 
its size and voracity. We have just seen that a Pike 
can come off victoriously from a battle with a Salmon 
of its own size; but Ekstrom adduces® a more singular 
proof of its powers. In the back of a Pike that did 
not weigh more than 8V2 kilo., he found the skeleton 
of an osprey ( Pandion haliaetus), which had rashly 
attacked the fish, but been drawn into the depths and 
drowned. Similar tales are told of sea eagles that 
have perished in the attempt to capture and carry off 
the Pike. 
Though not very tenacious of life, the Pike may 
be kept alive for a long time in a well, especially 
if it has some smaller fish to prey on, for it re- 
tains its rapaciousness even in captivity. In contra- 
distinction to other fishes, it continues to feed during 
the spawning-season. On the 9th of June, 1893, we 
purchased in Stockholm a gravid female 47 2 dm. long 
strongly distended'' by the ovaries, which were quite 
ripe, and voided the eggs at the least pressure. In 
the stomach, however, lay a Roach 12 cm. long, only 
the head of which had digested. 
The spawning is of long duration, its season de- 
pending on the age of the fish. The young spawn 
first. When they have finished, the middle-aged Pike 
begin, and last of all the oldest and largest. In spring, 
before there is open water in the lakes, the Pike com- 
mences to ascend towards the shores. A tradition, handed 
down among the fishermen of Central Sweden from 
time immemorial and still surviving, states that on 
St. Gregory’s Day (March 1 2th) the Pike turns its 
head towards the shore, and on St. Gertrude’s Day 
(March 17th) begins its ascent. It repairs to those 
parts of the shore where streams and brooks fall into 
the inlets, rendering them in the Swedish fisherman’s 
parlance landlosa {landless). The Pike that arrive first 
are known as Gertrude’s or Ice Pike. A great por- 
tion of the roe they deposit is probably destroyed, 
for it is often committed to the open lake, where it 
is exposed to so many dangers. When the spring is 
so far advanced that the lakes are ice-free, the brooks 
clear, and the low-lying meadows round the shore 
under water, the larger Pike make their way to these 
inundated places, and begin to spawn. As this gene- 
rally coincides with the pairing-time of the frog, the 
Pike that breed at this season are called Fro-gaddor 
or Gloss-gciddor, from Kdllfro and Glossa, names ap- 
plied by the peasantry to the frog {B,ana temporaria). 
They are also known as Gras-gaddor (Grass Pike) 
and Angs-gaddor (Meadow Pike), from the nature of 
their spawning-place. Last of all come the largest 
Pike. These usually begin to breed at the end of 
May, when the trees are in leaf, and several flowers 
in bloom; and are hence called Lof-gaddor (Leaf Pike) 
or Blomster-gdddor (Flower Pike). They are few in 
number, like the Ice Pike, and spawn in water of 
some depth within weedy inlets. The earliest Pike, 
which are often of a brassy yellow colour, also bear 
the name of Messing s-gciddor (Brass Pike). The some- 
what older fish are known, on account of their slender 
form, as Langstjert-gaddor (Long-tailed Pike), and the 
oldest, with their thicker body, as Kortstjert-gaddor 
(Short-tailed Pike). 
The further north the Pike has its home, the 
later is the spawning-season. In the Tornea Elf the 
Pike does not breed until the middle of June. The 
Fro-gadda or Gras-gddda always spawns in shallow 
water; and as the breeding fish are neither timid nor 
massed in numbers at the same place, they may be 
closely observed. The females, which are always larg- 
est, come first, each attended by two or three, seldom 
four males. The female swims so high in the shallow 
water that, when the weather is calm, the surface is 
faintly rippled by her movements. Now and then the 
dorsal and caudal fins may be seen above the surface. 
As soon as the female halts, the males approach and 
surround her, one on each side, and, if there are 
more than two, one under the tail and another above 
the back. They rub themselves against her body, 
during which operation she keeps still, only moving 
the fins. After a while she disperses the males with 
a sudden lash of her body, and darts to another 
point, where the same operation is renewed. Mean- 
while she deposits on the grassy bottom the yellowish 
and coarse-grained roe, which is impregnated by the 
milt. In a Pike weighing 6 German pounds (2 4 / 5 
kilo.) Bloch counted 136,500 ova; in a female weigh- 
ing 28 lbs. avoirdupois (12*7 kilo.), and with ovaries 
0 Vet.-Akad. Handl. 1831, p. 79. 
6 The greatest deptli 21 % of the leugth of the body. 
