HYBRID BREAM 



209 



According to Major Trevelyan, this fish is known 

 to the Lough Erne fishermen by the name of 

 " White Roach," in contradistinction to the " Red 

 Roach " or " Rudd." The largest specimen sent by 

 him measured 13 inches in length and weighed 

 2 lbs., but he had good reason to believe that 

 specimens of 2h lbs. had been taken. The 

 abundance of these fishes in Lough Erne is very 

 remarkable, and it would be interesting if it could 

 be ascertained whether they attempt to breed, and 

 if so, with what effect. Evidently in Lough Erne 

 the breeding seasons of the Bream and Rudd usually 

 coincide. 



Yarrell's skin and the Colebrooke and Thetford 

 examples had been determined as White Bream 

 {BUcca bjoernkd), a species in many ways intermediate 

 between the Rudd and the Bream, but differing from 

 their hybrid in the less oblique mouth, larger eye, 

 different number of fin-rays (dorsal usually with 

 eight instead of nine branched rays, anal with 

 nineteen to twenty-four), and higher position of the 

 lateral line, which runs at about two-fifths instead of 

 one-third the height of the body in the middle of 

 the length of the fish. 

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