See Esox, Ichthyology Index.

The pike never swims in shoals as most other fish do, but always lies alone; and is so bold and ravenous, that he will seize upon almost any thing less than himself. Of the ravenous nature of this fish we shall give the following instances. At Rycoot in Oxfordshire, in the year 1749, in a moat surrounding the earl of Abingdon's seat, there was a jack or pike of such a monstrous size, that it had destroyed young swans feathers and all. An old cobb swan having hatched five young, one after another was lost till four were gone. At length an under gardener saw the fish seize the fifth. The old one fought him with their beaks, and with the assistance of the gardener, released it although he had got it under water. In the year 1765 a large pike was caught in the river Ouse, which weighed upwards of 28 pounds, and was sold for a guinea. On gutting the fish, a watch with a black ribbon and two steel seals were found in its stomach, which, by the maker's name, &c. was found to belong to a person who had been drowned about six weeks before. This fish breeds but once in a year, which is in March. It is found in almost all fresh waters; but is very different in goodness, according to the nature of the places where it lives. The finest pike are those which feed in clear rivers; those in ponds and meres are inferior, and the worst of all are those of the fen ditches. They are very plentiful in these last places, where the water is foul and coloured, and their food, such as frogs and the like, very plentiful, but very coarse; so that they grow large, but are yellowish and high bellied, and differ greatly from those which live in the clearer waters.

The fishermen have two principal ways of catching the pike; by the ledger, and by the walking-bait.

The ledger-bait is fixed in one certain place, and may continue while the angler is absent. This must be a live bait, a fish or frog; and among fish, the dace, roach, and gudgeon, are the best; of frogs, the only caution is to choose the largest and yellowest that can be met with. If the bait be a fish, the hook is to be stuck through the upper lip, and the line must be 14 yards at least in length; the other end of this is to be tied to a bough of a tree, or to a stick driven into the ground near the pike's haunt, and all the line wound round a forked stick, except about half a yard. The bait will by this means keep playing so much under water, and the pike will soon lay hold of it.

If the bait be a frog, then the arming wire of the hook should be put in at the mouth, and out at the side; and with a needle and some strong silk, the hinder leg of one side is to be fastened by one flitch to the wire-arming of the hook. The pike will soon seize this, and must have line enough to give him leave to get to his haunt, and poach the bait.

The trolling for pike is a pleasant method also of taking them: in this a dead bait serves, and none is so proper as a gudgeon.

This is to be pulled about in the water till the pike seizes it; and then it is to have line enough, and time to swallow it: the hook is small for this sport, and has a smooth piece of lead fixed at its end to sink the bait; and the line is very long, and runs through a ring at the end of the rod, which must not be too slender at top.

The art of feeding pike, so as to make them very fat, is the giving them eels; and without this it is not to be done under a very long time; otherwise perch, while small, and their prickly fins tender, are the best food for them. Bream put into a pike-pond are a very proper food: they will breed freely, and their young ones make excellent food for the pike, who will take care that they shall not increase over much. The numerous shoals of roaches and rudds, which are continually changing place, and often in floods get into the pike's quarters, are food for them for a long time.

Pike, when used to be fed by hand, will come up to the very shore, and take the food that is given them out of the fingers of the feeder. It is wonderful to see with what courage they will do this, after a while practising; and it is a very diverting fight when there are several of them nearly of the same size, to see what striving and fighting there will be for the best bits when they are thrown in. The most convenient place is near the mouth of the pond, and where there is about half a yard depth of water; for, by that means, the offal of the feedings will all lie in one place, and the deep water. will serve for a place to retire into and rest in, and will be always clean and in order.

Carp may be fed in the same manner as pike; and though by nature a fish as remarkably shy and timorous as the pike is bold and fearless, yet by custom they will come to take their food out of the person's hand; and will, like the pike, quarrel among one another for the nicest bits.

**Pike**, in *War*, an offensive weapon, consisting of a wooden shaft, 12 or 14 feet long, with a flat steel head, pointed, called the *spear*. This weapon was long in use among the infantry; but now the bayonet, which is fixed on the muzzle of the firelock, is substituted in its stead. It is still used by some of the officers of infantry, under the name of *spontoon*. The Macedonian phalanx was a battalion of pikemen. See PHALANX.

**Pila marina**, or the *sea-ball*, in *Natural History*, is the name of a substance very common on the shores of the Mediterranean, and elsewhere. It is generally found in the form of a ball about the size of the balls of horse dung, and composed of a variety of fibrils irregularly complicated. Various conjectures have been given of its origin by different authors. John Bauhine tells us, that it consists of small hairy fibres and straws, such as are found about the sea plant called *algae vivariarum*; but he does not ascertain what plant it owes its origin to. Imperatus imagined it consisted of the exuviae both of vegetable and animal bodies. Mercatus is doubtful whether it be a congeries of the fibrils of plants, wound up into a ball by the motion of the sea water, or whether it be not the workmanship of some sort of beetle living about the sea shore, and analogous to our common dung beetle's ball, which it elaborates from dung for the reception of its progeny. Schreckius says it is composed of the filaments of some plant of the reed kind; and Welchius supposes it is composed of the papous part of the flowers of the reed. Maurice Hoffman thinks it the excrement of the hippopotamus; and others think it that of the phoca or sea calf. Klein, who had thoroughly and minutely examined the bodies themselves, and all what authors had conjectured concerning them, thinks that they are wholly owing to, and entirely composed of, the calliaments which the leaves, growing to the woody stalk of the *algae vivariarum*, have when they wither and decay. These leaves, in their natural state, are as thick as a wheat straw, and they are placed so thick about the tops and extremities of the stalks, that they enfold, embrace, and lie over one another; and from the middle of these clusters of leaves, and indeed from the woody substance of the plant itself, there arise several other very long, flat, smooth, and brittle leaves. These are usually four from each tuft of the other leaves; and they have ever a common vagina, which is membranaceous and very thin. This is the style of the plant, and the *pila marina* appears to be a cluster of the fibres of the leaves of this plant, which cover the whole stalk, divided into their constituent fibres; and by the motion of the waves first broken and worn into short threads, and afterwards wound up together into a roundish or lengthened ball.

**Pila**, was a ball made in a different manner according to the different games in which it was to be used. Playing at ball was very common amongst the Romans of the first diffusion, and was looked upon as a manly exercise, which contributed both to amusement and health. The pila was of four sorts: 1st, *Follis* or balloon; 2d, *Pila Trigonalis*; 3d, *Pila Paganica*; 4th, *Harpagium*. All these come under the general name of pila. For the manner of playing with each of them, see the articles FOLLIS, TRIGONALIS.