198 BRITISH FRESHWATER FISHES 



usually feeding near the bottom on weeds, insects, 

 larvae, little shellfish, etc., but on warm summer 

 days sometimes taking flies at the surface. They 

 are not particularly shy, except in waters which 

 have been overfished, and from their abundance, 

 and their readiness to take a bait, they probably 

 give enjoyment to more anglers than does any 

 other species of fish in our rivers. Nevertheless, it 

 must not be supposed that the capture of Roach is 

 an easy matter ; the fish are so sharp-eyed that 

 lines of only the finest gut must be used, or some 

 anglers prefer a single horsehair next the hook ; 

 moreover, the fish have an irritating habit of taking 

 the bait into the mouth and immediately spitting it 

 out again, so that it is necessary to attain the art 

 of perceiving the slightest movement of the float 

 and of immediately making a corresponding move- 

 ment of the wrist to strike the fish. I have often 

 thrown in a pellet of paste, and have seen one 

 Roach after another take it in and reject it, until 

 one found it sufficiently to his liking to swallow it. 

 Mr. Fennell, who watched Roach in the same way, 

 declared that if the largest fish in the shoal had 

 rejected the paste none of the others would touch 

 it, and that after doing so he would often swim 

 away elsewhere and the rest with him. 



In the winter, when the weeds begin to decay, 

 the Roach retire into deep water, but still feed on 

 occasion. In April or May they band together in 

 vast companies, and make their way to their breed- 

 ing places, which are weedy shallows near the 

 banks or in small tributary streams ; here they press 

 together in a dense mass, and by their movements 

 against each other are said sometimes to produce a 



