TIIIC STOKV QIC I'IKK. 
9 
systematic slaughter, but if some s[)ecies of small hawk or 
butcher bird could ever become as fearless an inhabitant 
of our cities as these birds, their reduction to reasonable 
numbers would only be a matter of a few months. 
The Story of Pike. 
BY UNCBK NB:d. 
CIIAPTKR IV. 
Pike grew fast all that summer, for he had a plenty to 
eat and a great appetite. After a little he did not eat so 
many insects as at first, although he frequently saw them 
swimming in the watei or crawling about on the bottom. 
They were small, generally covered with a hard coat, and 
on the whole scarce!}" worth while for a pickerel to bother 
with. Pike found that it was better to let the minnows 
eat the insects, while he in turn caught and ate the min¬ 
nows. 
The minnows grew quite fast, but Pike grew faster, and 
by the beginning of autumn he was fully six inches long, 
and able to eat any fish that was not more than half his 
size. He passed the greater part of his time lying very 
still at the edge of a patch of pickerel weed that grew near 
the shore at the mouth of the brook. It was an ea.sy way 
to catch small fish, which often came close to him, ready 
.so be snapped up. At the same time he was safe from the 
larger fish, such as ba.ss and perch and pickerel, big enough 
to eat him, but which generally stayed in the deeper wa¬ 
ter of the lake. 
There was always something or other, as long as he 
lived, that Pike had reason to be afraid of; but as he grew 
larger, th'e number of creatures that could hurt him be¬ 
came smaller. Of course, even before he was six inches 
long, or near it, no water-bug could .spear him and carry 
