ESOX, the pike, in natural history, a genus of fishes of the order Abdominales. Generic character : head flattish above, mouth and throat large ; teeth sharp, in the jaws, palate, and tongue ; nostrils double, near the eyes ; gill-membrane with from seven to twelve rays ; body elongated ; dorsal fin near the tail. Gme lin enumerates fifteen species, and Shaw twenty-two ; we shall notice the follow ing, as the most important.
E. luscius, or the common pike. In Lapland this fish, we are informed, is found not unfrequently of the length of eight feet. It is to be met with in most lakes and small rivers throughout Europe. Its common colour is a pale olive, but in Holland it has been seen of an orange co lour, with black spots. When in its per fect state its colours are uniformly found to be most vivid. The largest pike ever caught in Great Britain is supposed to have been one which weighed thirty-five pounds. It is a fish of particularly rapid growth, and also of great longevity, ha ving been ascertained, according to one of the natural historians of Poland, tolive to the age of ninety years. The stomach of the pike is particularly strong, muscu lar, and extended. Its teeth without in cluding those nearest the throat, are no fewer than seven hundred, and those which are placed on the jaws are alter nately moveable and fixed. It is one of the most voracious of fishes, and is often found to swallow water rats and young ducks : it has even attacked the swan, and swallowed the head and great part of the neck of that bird : but being una ble to separate these from the body, it became, in this instance, the victim of its voracity. It will engage with the otter
in the most ferocious and persevering con tests for any article of food, and after long abstinence has been known to seize on the lips of a mule, and to be drawn up by the affrighted quadruped before it could pos sess time for extrication. It is not unfre quently caught in the latter end of spring in the ditches near the Thames, while asleep, by means of a noosed chord dex terously slipped round it. The appear ance of the pike is dreaded by the small er fishes, as the signal of destruction, and is observed to excite in them all the indi cations of detestation and terror.
E. stomias, or the piper-mouthed pike, is a native of the Mediterranean sea, about eighteen inches in length, and of a green ish brown colour. Its lower jaw is con siderably longer than the upper ; it has two fore teeth in the upper, and these, with two of the under, project from the mouth when shut ; the first ray of the dorsal fin, which is near the head, is very long and cetaceous, and its body gradual ly tapers towards the tail, which is some what forked. It is a very curious fish, and a specimen of it is to be seen in the Bri tish Museum.