COMMON BREAM. 55 



Bream are caug-ht in enormous quantities in some places on the Continent. Nilsson 

 tells us that when the fishing is being carried on in Sweden, in some of the parishes near 

 the lakes it is forbidden to ring the church bells, that the noise may not alarm the fish. 

 Ten to forty thousand pounds weight of Bream have been taken at a single haul of the 

 net. Siebold {Siisscrimsscrf., p. 124) states that Bream, being eminently gregarious in their 

 habits both at spawning and other times, are caught in immense number in the Spirdingsee 

 and Bodensee below Constanz. "Even now," he says, "from time to time many hundred 

 tons {vichi-crc linndcrt Toiincu Brachsen) of Bream are taken from the Spirdingsee at a single 

 draught of the large winter nets." 



Bream, like Carp and Tench, are tenacious of life, and will live for some time out of 

 water. Though poor fare for the table, Bream are most useful fish in large ponds and lakes 

 where there are many Pike, to which they contribute a constant supply of food. 



The derivation of the word Bream is obscure ; clearly it is only another form of the 

 German Brachsen, French Brane, Old High German Bra/isema, Dutch Brassem. The Low 

 T.atin form of the word is Bresviia ; I suspect this is merely an altered form of the Greek 

 A^pafjL.i'i, the derivation of which I have been unable to discover. 



The head of the Bream is small ; body very deep and compressed behind the ventral fin ; 

 tail much forked. The colour of large or moderate-sized specimens is yellow and brown on 

 the back, pale below. 



The hn rays are 



Dorsal 12. 

 Anal 26 — 30. 

 Ventral 10. 



The throat-teeth are 5 — 5. 



The specimen figured was caught by a net in the Aqualate Mere last May (1878), and 

 obligingly given to me with any other fish that I required by Sir Thomas F. Boughey, Bart. 



