CHAPTER XV 



RUDD 



The rudd, or " roud," as he is called in the Broadland, is 

 one of the most beautiful and most useless fishes of the dis- 

 trict ; he is not worth cooking at any time, and even the 

 neediest Broadsman turns his nose up at the useless " roud." 

 When freshly taken from the water, his blue-bronze back 

 and golden stomach, edged with crimson fins, and dotted 

 with red-rimmed eyes, make him a handsome object. Each 

 particular fan-shaped scale too is a work of art ; so that the 

 fish, on closer examination, appears to be covered with golden 

 and blue-bronze fans. On holding the translucent scale up 

 to the light, you see a series of concentric markings — a fan 

 of frosted silver opposing the golden seen through an opal- 

 escent film. Altogether it is a most lovelj^ and dainty thing, 

 this fish's armour-plate of gold and bronze ; and he is well 

 worth the catching, to study his wondrous beauty. 



During the winter months he too takes to deep water, in 

 shoals — some large fish, others small fry. He chiefly feeds at 

 this season on weeds, biting the tops off the " muzzle-weed " 

 as cleanly as a rabbit bites off" the corn-stalks. But as soon 

 as the spring solstice warms the water, the shoals draw into 

 shallow water, and begin to add flics to their bill of fare. 

 Towards the end of May they get into the shallowest water 

 by the broad edge to spawn, collecting in small shoals. And 

 very busy they are whilst spawning — splashing and rubbing 

 against the roots and hovers, then resting for a quarter of 

 an hour and beginning again — so this strange festival is 



held. The rudd seems to cast his bream-like spawn in two 



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