152 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
carp and tench, bream come to the surface on warm nights and 
may be heard smacking their fleshy lips. Their food is 
vegetarian in great part, but they also devour worms and 
insects. 
Nowadays in England the flesh of bream is of rather less 
than moderate repute, though some people maintain it to be 
excellent, but, like that of all the carp tribe, it is very 
perishable, and ought to be dealt with speedily. The fish 
changes colour soon after death, showing red stains, indicating 
incipient decomposition ; add to this the extraordinary amount 
of slime secreted from the mucus canals of the head and body, 
spread thence all over the skin, and you have an object far 
from appetising. Nevertheless, enormous quantities of bream, 
both of this and other species, are consumed on the Continent, 
especially in Russia and Eastern Europe. 
He who would take bream with rod and line must go 
warily to work, neither showing himself incautiously nor 
Angling for Making any noise, for they have sharp eyes and 
ream. quick ears, and, although habitually slow in move- 
ment, dash off in a prodigious hurry when alarmed. They are 
bold biters, and he who falls in with a shoal of large bream is 
not unlikely to have a busy time with them, unless they have 
become wary from much fishing. They are capricious, how- 
ever, in the matter of bait. Lobworms, gentles, paste, boiled 
wheat, caddis, and wasp grubs may all be offered in succession 
sometimes, and without effect, until something is found that 
hits their fancy ; then the fun begins. A long, light rod and 
a fine running line, a small hook and six feet of fine, but 
undrawn gut, with a porcupine or swan-quill float, painted 
green, are the chief necessaries for the bream-fisher. The 
practised bottom-fisher generally knows by the movement of 
the float what kind of fish is at his bait. In the case of the 
bream this movement is peculiarly characteristic, for the fish 
first seizes the bait with a lifting motion, which takes the weight 
off the float and throws it flat on the water. After that the 
