777 



from iiiiiiurc miuI muddy w.itcr it turn.s red iiftc>r boil- 

 iii'i- ;nid a<'i|uir('s ;i strouu'. iiiiplcasniit taste of mud. 

 On attaining a length oi' "-'0 — '2') cm. the Uoaeli genor- 

 ally unnvs fat, and is tlicn i^nown as Kartmiiit or 

 Gnifiiiort. Its I'atTicss dcjtcnds, iiowcvcr, on tlic fond- 

 suppl}'. \vliicli con.sists of vegetable sul).stances, insects, 

 larva', and mollusks. It seldom lives long in a cauf, 

 unless taken during the spawning-season. 



The lioaeli is one of our most useful fishes, l)oth 

 as a \velct)me addition to tlie coarse fare of the poor", 

 and as a \alu:d>le bait for larger and more esteemed 

 fisiies, in wiiich respect it is inferior to none of our 

 indigenous piscine forms. Tiiough it is most often 

 taken, in great or small nundjers, with .se/«e.s of .several 

 kinds, other tackle is also u.sed, consisting of trapf^, 

 which are set during tlie spawning-season in weirs 

 {verke, see abo\e, j). 32), or ftoarli-ncfs, which are em- 

 ployed either in summer, when they are shot off weedy 

 shores, or during the spawning-season, round the weirs 

 in whicli the traps are placed. At the latter season 

 thc\' nnn' also be set round the reeds or beds of weeds 

 where the Roach spawns, in which case the fish are 

 driven towards the net with the fork (see above, p. 

 741, lig. IS.')). Lastly, the Roach is taken with I'od 

 and line, and bites during the whole summer. Winter- 

 angling on the ice is practised only to procure Roach 

 for bait. But few fish are caught in this manner. 



The above characters seem quite sufficient to ren- 

 der the Roath easily recognisal)le; but both in form 

 and coloration it sometimes varies beyond comprehen- 

 sion, and several nominal species have thus originated. 

 Fatio has arranged these varieties in three groups: 



1) Leiicisriis yi(fih(s^ var. data, with body of extra- 

 ordinary depth, closely resembling that of the Rudd — 

 to this group belong the Lenciscns niflJoides oi SEL\ii- 

 I.oN(;cHA.Mi's'' and Xordmaxn's (1. c.) Leuciscus Heckelii: 



2) L. nttihis. var. cloiif/afa, with body extraordinarily 

 elongated (shallow) and only slightly compressed, more 



like that (jf the Dace — comprising IIi;f'Ki;r,'s Leariscas 

 Si'li/sii and .\(iAssiz' L. prashnix : and ;>) A. ratilas, 

 rar. crassa, with body of extraordinary thickness, in 

 ap|iearunce not unlike the Chub, but most nearly allied 

 to tlu^ Italian Leuciseas atila. IIkckki. found in Lake 

 Egel (Upper Austria) a form wliich he called Jjcnciseits 

 Faasivf/cri, with comparatively high dor-sal and low 

 anal iins. This form was again met with b\' Mai.m in 

 Lake liolmen (Sweden), and lience was named \i\ him 

 Lcur'i^caf: riitihis, farma bolme)isis. L.vriii discovered 

 a remarkable malformation of the Roach in Lake Bru- 

 nig, an Alpine lake now almost dry, and situated 1,160 

 m. above the level of tiie .sea. Roai-h and Perch were 

 introduced into this lake at al»out the middle of the 

 last century. ,\s the lake gradually dried up and 

 shrank into a smidl, deep pool of veiy clear water, the 

 Roach, which he never found to measure more than 

 1() cm., and whose eyes, as usual in tishes of stunted 

 growth, were comparatively large, had suffered an 

 albinotic change; of colour. The back was pale green, 

 the sides were ])ure silvery white, the tins almost colour- 

 less, but the ejes deep red. In most of them too — 

 perhaps because they were compelled, like Bleak, to 

 seek their food at the surface — the mouth was more 

 oblique than usual, resembling that of the Rudd, with 

 more projecting chin. In other localities, in Northern 

 Germany (Danzig and the Frische Haff', according to 

 Siebold), in France (the Seille, a tributary of the Mo- 

 selle), and in Switzerland (the Lake of Geneva), the 

 said albinism has produced the (ifilil Hoarh, a form 

 analogous to the frohi Ide already mentioned. To con- 

 clude, the sociable propensities of the Roach, in Sweden 

 and in manv other places, have induced it to join com- 

 pany with other Cyprinoids engaged in sp.awning. 

 Hence hybrids — or at least forms reasonably capable 

 of this interpretation — have been found between the 

 Roach and the Rudd, Bleak, Bream, and White Bream. 



(Eksth()M, Smitt.) 



" Tlie lioncli is t-qiially iuiporUiiit in Soiitli-eiisteni Russia, wliere. according to Grimm, three ur four luinilreil millions are annually 

 taken in the Caspian Sea, and ahout a hundred millions in tlie Black Sea with the Rivers Kuban and Tlon. 

 '' Fwwe Behif. p. 212. 



