216 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



Moses Browne, writing of the pike (" Piscatory Ec- 

 logues "), says : 



" Yet, howsoe'er with raging famine pin'd, 

 The tench he spares, a salutary kind. 

 For when by wounds distrest, or sore disease, 

 He courts the fish, medicinal, for ease. 

 Close to his scales the head physician glides, 

 And sweats a healing balsam from his sides." 



This belief prevails to the present day. Buckland says : 

 '' I am not sure of the fact." 



Day says : " It has been termed the ' Fishes' Physician ; ' ' 

 and Camden, in his " Britannica," observes that he has 

 seen bellies of pike which have been rent open have their 

 gaping wounds presently closed by the touch of the tench, 

 and by their glutinous slime perfectly healed up. 



This exemption, however, from the attacks of pike is 

 very problematical. Day says: "In the 'Zoologist/ 1853, 

 p. 4021, Mr. Slariey observed a pike which had seized a tench 

 of about 3 Ibs. weight, crosswise, and was unable to swallow 

 it. A few days subsequently he saw another tench un- 

 dergoing the same process, and afterwards saw a dead 

 one which had evidently been injured by a pike. In the 

 'Zoologist/ 1867, is a record of a tench of 7 Ibs. weight 

 being taken out of the stomach of a pike of between 30 

 and 40 Ibs., taken at Frogmore, Windsor." 



Tench love still waters, and their haunts in rivers are 

 chiefly among weeds, and in places well shaded with bushes 

 and rushes. He is often found near sluices, and is rather 

 fond of the mud. 



Daniel, in his " Rural Sports/' gives an account of a 

 tench found in a piece of water at Thornville Royal, which 

 had been confined in a hole under the roots of a tree for so 

 long a time as to take the shape of the place of his confine- 

 ment. His length from fork to eye was two feet nine inches ; 

 his circumference, almost to the tail, was two feet three inches ; 

 his weight, eleven pounds nine ounces and a quarter. The 

 colour was also singular, his belly being that of a char, or 

 a vermilion. This extraordinary fish, after being inspected 

 by many gentlemen, was carefully put in a pond ; but 



