Manchester Meifioi?'s, Vol. Iviii. {igi^). No. ^. 33 



Four Batrachians — the 

 Rana temporaria Linnaeus. Common Frog, Com- 

 Biifo bufo (Linnaeus). mon Toad, Crested and 



Molge cristata (Laurenti). Common Newts — occur 



Molge vulgaris (Linnaeus). in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Rostherne, 

 but we have no recollection of seeing any of them, nor 

 their spawn, in the mere itself 



Pisces. 



The difficulty of netting so deep a water as Rostherne, 

 and the fact that it is comparatively little fished, accounts 

 for the scarcity of information about its fish fauna. 



Certain fishes, the Torch 

 Percafluviatilis Linnaeus. especially, are more easily 



tempted by a bait than 

 others, and most fishermen who visit Rostherne try either 

 for Perch or Pike. The Perch in this mere are fine, deep 

 fish, and often bite freely. It is not unusual to take a 

 dozen or more and for the fish to average ^ lb., or even 

 a pound ; the largest we have taken personally weighed 

 just under i ^ lbs. The Rostherne Perch feed freely on 

 Ase/lus, and we have found these crustaceans alive in the 

 stomachs of fish some hours after capture. We have also, 

 in July, August and September, on several occasions, 

 found larval Perch in the stomachs of fish that we had 

 caught. In June we have found the Carp-louse, Argulus 

 foliaceus^ on fish. We once found a living leech in the 

 stomach of a Perch. 



The Bullhead or Miller's 

 Cottus gobio Linnaeus. Thumb occurs in Blackburn's 



Brook, but not often in the 

 mere. Coward found one dead at some distance from 

 any brook. 



