E S 
it has two or three rows of teeth in the jaws, palate, and 
throat, and the upper furface of the tongue is full of 
little teeth. The dorfal fin is triangular; the fcaleslarge. 
There are black ftripes on the fins ; belly white. 
11. Efox Chinenfts, the Chinefe pike. Specific cha¬ 
racter, one dorfal fin; head and opercula not fcaly ; ge¬ 
neral colour greenifh white, without bands, flripes, or 
fpots. The head is fmall ; fnout pointed; a dent juft 
before the nape. The opercula are in three pieces ; the 
lateral line bends downwards. This is found among the 
Chinefe paintings fo often quoted. Except in the (ingle 
dorfal fin, it feems greatly to refemble the fecond fpecies, 
which Cepeae copied from the fame collection. 
12. Efox macrocephalus, the long-headed pike. Spe¬ 
cific character, head and jaws very long, the lower longed; 
eves near each other, and to the end of the muzzle ; 
general colour filvery green, without fpots, bands, or 
itripes. The operculum is in three pieces, angular towards 
the tail j the lateral line bends downwards, and is golden ; 
dorfal and anal fins fickle-diaped ; ventrals very fmall, 
tail bifid. This is alfo from the Dutch collection of Chi¬ 
nefe paintings. 
13. Efox Malabaricus, the Malabar pike. Specific cha¬ 
racter, two canine-teeth breach jaw, and 5 rays in the 
membrane of the gills. The peCtoral fin has 11 rays, 
the ventral 8, the anal 10, the tail 17, the dorfal 14. 
The head is flat, fmooth, fomewhat comprefted at the 
fides. The lower jaw is fomewhat longed. This fiflt 
lias not fo many large teeth as^fome of the other fpecies, 
but both tongue and palate are armed. The nodrils are 
double ; the aperture of the gills is wide ; the fcales are 
large and (lippery ; the rays of the fins foft and ramified. 
The dorfal fin is oppofite the ventral ; back greenifh ; 
fides and belly incline to yellow ; the fins are grey, with 
tranfverfe dripes-of brown ; tail-fin rounded. It is a very 
Irandfome fifli ; the flcfli is white, vvell-taded, and whole- 
fome. Its name fliews its country. A figure of it is given 
in the Efox Plate II. fig. 2 . 
14. Efox lucius, the common pike. This well-known 
fifli has a head of a lingular form : the fore-part or fnout 
is flattened horizontally, and comprefted on the fides to¬ 
wards the cheeks ; jaws nearly equal. There are 15 rays 
in the membrane of the gills, 14 in the peCtoral fin, 10 in 
the ventral, 17 in the anal, 20 in the dorfal and tail. 
The head is large, the mouth wide, extending almoft to 
the eyes ; the under jaw protrudes, and has a row of teeth, 
of which the front ones are fmall, and thofe-behind larger 
and ftronger : the upper jaw has only a row of fmall 
teeth in front ; the middlemoft fmall, the others larger, 
and turning inwards : the latter lie partly in the (kin, 
partly in the jaw : they are in number about 700, without 
reckoning thofe behind, near the gills, or round the gul¬ 
let. It is remarkable that the jaw-teeth are alternately 
one fixed, another loofe ; in this and fome other particu¬ 
lars it refenibles the fliark, and may be called the tyrant 
of rivers, as that is of the fea. The eyes have a bluiflt 
pupil, furroundeef with a gold-yellow iris. From Cepede’s 
account of the organs of hearing, the pike feems to pof- 
fefs that fenfe.jn great perfection. The head is of a mixed 
colour, as well as the body. The back is broad to the 
dorfal fin, and the belly to the anal, and it is comprefted 
laterally. The back is-black; belly white, with black 
dots; fides grey, with fuch a quantity of yellow fpots, 
that they run one into the other, and form ftripes. The 
colours, however, vary, from the nature of the water, and 
the abundance or fcarcity of food : it is particularly re¬ 
marked, that in fpavvning-time, the grey colour changes 
to a fine green ; the pale-yellow fpots into a bright gold- 
yellow ; and the gills become of a vermilion colour. 
Some pikes are orange-colour with brown fpots ; and 
thefe the Dutch fifhermen call the “ king of the pikes.” 
Thefirft year they are generally green ; during the fecond, 
the green changes to grey, and pale fpots appear, which 
become yellow the following year. The body is covered 
with fmall oblong hard fcales, of which Richter has fixed 
the number at 17,000. The peCtoral and ventral fins are 
reddilh 5 the dorlul, anal, and tail, are brown fpread over 
O X. 15 
with black fpots : they are all divided into branches 
or rays. 
This fifh is found in mOft countries in Europe, except 
(according to Amatus) Spain and Portugal. It haunts 
rivers, lakes, and mod ftill waters. The pike fwims with 
celerity, is very greedy, and hurtful to fifhermen by de- 
ftroying fuch numbers of fmall fifli : it does not even 
(pare its own fpecies; and it will attack a filh nearly as 
large as itfelf, taking the head in its mouth, and fo de¬ 
vouring it by degrees. When it catches a perch, it does 
not fvvallow him whole, for fear of hurting itfelf with the 
prickles of the dorfal fin ; but holds him between his teeth 
till he is dead ; from the fame fear and caution, the pike 
fuffersthe flickleback, which is a fmall fifli, to play about 
him undiflurbed ; fometimes. indeed a young and inex¬ 
perienced pike, when preffed by hunger, will (eize on a 
flickleback; but it generally cofts him his life, for the 
little fifli pierces his gullet through and through : Bloch 
faw a pike with a flickleback in his mouth, the ray of 
whofe dorfal fin had pierced quite through, and came out 
at his noftrils. But the pike is not content with fifli only ; 
he devours birds, rats, flukes, &c. human fiefh, and that 
of cats and dogs, have alfo been found in his ftomach. 
One remarkable thing is, that in fpite of his voracioufnefs, 
he diftinguiflies very well what is poifonous or hurtful r a 
pike was put into a trough, and had fome frogs and toads 
thrown into him : he devoured the former with avidity, 
but threw up the latter immediately after he had (wal¬ 
lowed them. Two inftances are mentioned of a pike being 
choaked, by attempting to fwallow animals too large for 
its power of deglutition : in the one, the animal expired 
in endeavouring to devour a pike nearly of its own fize ; 
the other happened at the canal atTrentham, w here the 
pike feized the head of a fwan, as (lie was feeding under 
water, and gorged fo much of it as killed them both. All 
writers agree in aferibing uncommon voracity to thefe ani¬ 
mals, and mention fafts in fupport of it fo extraordinary, 
as would feem incredible, were they not in a great mea- 
fure confirmed by daily obfervation. The peculiar ftruc- 
ture of the jaws, which are loofely connected together, 
and have on each fide art additional bone, like thofe of 
the viper, while it favours their voracious inftinbts, proves 
often their ruin, by prompting them to fwallow animals 
too large, even for that uncommon diflenfion of which 
they are capable. The digeftive powers of the pike are 
as remarkable as its voracity : after fwallowing a fifh of a 
fize but little inferior to its own, thofe parts that have 
entered into the ftomach are difloived with amazing ra¬ 
pidity ; while thofe in the mouth and throat, which are 
yet entire, make a conftant progrefs downwards, as the 
procefs of digeftion makes way for them. Hence a fiflt, 
which is too large to be fwallowed entire, appears for a 
while with its tail hanging from the mouth of the pike ; 
but gradually difappears, and is difloived by the ftomach 
almoft as quickly as it enters. From this extraordinary 
voracity of the pike, aided by fuch uncommon powers 
of digeftion, lie is-by far the greateft tyrant of the freflt 
water. He is faid to contend with the otter for his prey, 
and fometimes to force it from his mouth. The angler, 
in drawing a trout, has been known at once to lofe his 
line and his prize, by the unexpedted attack of one of 
thefe plunderers. When we confider the numbers and 
voracity of thefe fifh, it may appear ftrange that any of 
the inhabitants of the frefh water fliould elcape their de- 
vaftations. Young geefe and ducklings, when they firft 
venture into the ponds, are often deftroyed by them ; and 
all the fmaller fifties (hew the fame terror at the appear¬ 
ance of the pike, as the little birds do at the fight of the 
hawk or the owl. 
The devaftations committedTiy the pike are confidera- 
bly increafed, by the great longevity of that animal : if 
the accounts of naturalifts can be credited, the period of 
its exiftence far exceeds that of every other fifli, not ex¬ 
cepting thofe of the cetaceous kinds. The Polifli natu- 
ralift Rzaczynfki mentions one that reached its ninetieth 
year ; and Gelner gives a print of a brazen ring, that had 
been affixed to one that was caught near Hailbrun, in 
1497, 
