382 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



on the hair-weed, the males appearing first. They are to 

 be seen sailing about, their fins out of water, looking for the 

 spawn, for the males fill first. But the females soon begin 

 to cast their spawn, and then there is a commotion, the water 

 being black and troubled with them ; next small roach jump- 

 ing, and big males' fins cutting the water, all portents that 

 spawning or roudding will soon begin. 



A busy time is the spawning period ; for once they begin, 

 they go straight ahead and finish, like a pike, a very severe 

 wave of windy cold merely delaying the process for a day 

 or so. At this season all manner of fish collect (and some 

 birds, the swan amongst them) round them, and feed on 

 the spawn and fish — more especially eels and pike. A small 

 pike will fill himself with roach and bream spawn ; for with 

 them it is "get all you can whilst it lasts," for in three days 

 the spawning is over. And you may, an you miss the great 

 festival, and arrive upon the scene too late, see where the 

 spawning has been, for the weeds are all pulled about and 

 broken off; for the spawning roach get the weeds round 

 them, and break them off, as do the bream. Up some of the 

 narrow rivers the shoals have made the water so black that 

 the river seemed full of fish, and wherries seemed to be 

 sailing through a sea of roudding bream and roach. It seems 

 that during the roudding period all fish must rub against 

 something, either each other's bodies, or roots or boulders, 

 and so the bow-net comes in most useful at this period. 



When the great spring festival of the spawning is over, 

 they return in shoals to their haunts in the deep water. 

 And this accounts for the fact that on some waters no roach 

 are to be seen except during the spawning season. 



Whilst the spawn is hatching, and the bait growing in 

 the shallows of the broads and in the shallow dikes, the big 

 roach are recuperating from their efforts, and are not worth 

 eating till the end of July ; indeed, between the spawning 

 and the day shooting comes in, roach are not in condition, 

 and therefore not worth catching, unless you be a vain 



