_Anecdotes._--The rapacity of this fish is notorious. Jesse says,
"Out of eight hundred gudgeons, which were brought to me by a Thames
fisherman, and which I saw counted into the reservoir,--some few of
which, however, died,--there were scarcely any to be seen at the end
of three weeks. Indeed, the appetite of one of my pike was almost
insatiable. One morning, I threw to him, one after the other, five
roach, each about four inches in length. He swallowed four of them,
and kept the fifth in his mouth for about a quarter of an hour, when
it also disappeared."
The pike is an animal of extraordinary boldness. A few years ago, the
head keeper of Richmond Park was washing his hands at the side of a
boat, in the great pond, when a pike made a dart at one of his hands,
which the keeper suddenly withdrew, otherwise he would have received a
severe snap.
Mr. Jesse says, "Fish appear to be capable of entertaining affection
for each other. I once caught a female pike during the spawning season,
and nothing could drive the male away from the spot at which the female
disappeared, whom he had followed to the very edge of the water. A
person who had kept two small fish together in a glass, gave one of
them away; the other refused to eat, and showed evident symptoms of
unhappiness, till his companion was restored to him."
In the year 1497, a pike was caught, in standing water, at Heilbronn,
on the Neckar, which had a copper ring round its head; the ring bore
the following inscription in Greek: "I am the first fish that was
launched into this pond, and was thrown in by Frederick the Second,
emperor of the Romans, on the 5th of October, 1230." It appeared,
therefore, that the pike was two hundred and fifty-seven years old when
thus caught; it weighed three hundred and fifty pounds; and an exact
representation of it exists to this day upon one of the gates of
Heilbronn.