Pike

Pike, any fish of the Physostomous family Esocidas, with a single genus (Esox) containing five or six species, all valued for the table. The Common Pike (E. lucius) is British, but is found also in Europe, Asia, and America, and to the latter continent the other species are restricted. The body is covered with scales; barbels and adipose fin absent, and the dorsal fin is set just above the anal. The Pike or Jack is olive-grey above, with pale mottlings, and silvery-white beneath. It is said to attain a, length of from five feet to six feet, but specimens of from two feet to four feet are much more common. It is extremely voracious; its ordinary food consists of frogs and young lish; but ducklings, goslings, young moorhen, and water-rats are often devoured. It is long-lived; but the story of the pike 250 years old is an invention or more probably founded on a mistake.