*HE PIKE. 
2 f9 
Section XI. 
Genus XLVIIL — ^he Pike . 
This tribe contains in it four fpecies of Britijh fifties 5 
namely, the common pike, the fea pike, the gar, and 
the faury : They are all diftinguiflied, by having only 
one dorfal fin near the tail ; by a long, {lender body, la- 
terally compreffed ; and by the length of the lower jaw, 
which projedts confiderably beyond the upper. In gene- 
ral, the fnout of this family is long, and flattened hori- 
zontally ; the fcales are fmall, bony, and deciduous *. 
The moft remarkable part of the manners of thefe 
fifties is their voracity. Almoft every kind of animal 
that is not two large for its fwallow, is indifcriminately 
devoured by the common pike : even thofe of its own 
fpecies are facrificed to its gluttony, as often as other 
food is wanting to fatiate its ungovernable appetite. 
Two in (lances are mentioned of its being choaked, by at- 
tempting to fwallow animals too large for its power of 
deglutition: In the one, the animal expired in endea- 
vouring to devour a pike nearly of its own fize ; thfc 
other happened at the canal at Trentbain , where the pike 
feized the head of a fwan, as (he was feeding under wa- 
ter, and gorged fo much of it as killed them bothf. 
K k 2 AH 
Guar. Hill, p'fc, £Oi, /),<!. 
+ Brit. Zaol. gen, 3.4, 
