132 THE SPORTING FISH 



my knowledge both waterhens and cats have been 

 caueht in this manner. Ducks are the constant 

 victims of their incautious rapacity, and barn-door 

 fowls have not unfrequently been tempted to de- 

 struction by the allurements of a baited minnow 

 or seductive " green drake." An instance of the 

 latter is mentioned by Mr. Wright : — A gentleman 

 fishing with May-flies in the river Wye went into 

 an inn on the road-side, leaving his rod in the 

 portico, where a fine white cock took a fancy to 

 the fly, and became hooked in the soft part of the 

 beak. Feeling the hook the intruder prepared to 

 beat a hasty retreat and in so doing pulled down 

 the rod, with which he was running away in great 

 alarm ; but the angler, hearing the noise, sallied 

 forth, gave chase, and regained his departing 

 paraphernalia, when the cock mounted into the air, 

 and was with some difficulty brought down and 

 secured. 



The Roach spawns about the end of May or 

 the beginning of June, when the scales become 

 rough to the touch. The largest specimen that I 

 am aware of having been taken is that mentioned 

 by Pennant, which weighed 5 lbs. 



There is another species of the gcmis leuciscus, 

 closely allied to the Roach — so closely, indeed, 

 that it has by some authors been supposed to be a 

 hybrid between that fish and the Bream or Carp — 

 viz., the Rudd or Red-Eye, leuciscus erythroph- 



