342 FISHES. 



beneath, young fish being much spotted. The bass, 

 though, as aforementioned, uncertain in its goings and 

 comings, may, so far as our seas go, be regarded as a 

 Channel fish; but it is not uncommon off the Scottish 

 coasts, occurring (Buckley) in Loch Carron, in Ross-shire. 

 It is also met with on most parts of the Irish coast. Bass 

 of small size are abundant in summer in such enclosed 

 waters as Southampton docks, and greedily unbait every 

 hook in the vicinity ; but the heavier fish are usually 

 driven inshore by a spell of south-west wind, after which 

 they are found feeding for a day or two just behind the 

 break of the waves. They then disappear as suddenly as 

 they came. Though often shy of the hook, the bass is a 

 very foul feeder, and I have taken many from lobster-pots 

 when the latter were baited with stale fish, often too at 

 places w r here, as at Lulworth, they are not seldom baited 

 with rabbit, or even dead horse, which soon becomes par- 

 ticularly offensive in the water. In addition to its taste 

 for offal, the bass pursues sand-eels and various fry at the 

 surface, hence its popularity with the angler, who judges 

 its whereabouts by the movements of the gulls overhead. 

 Though not regularly anadromous for spawning purposes, 

 the bass, always an estuarine fish by preference, is fre- 

 quently taken in fresh water, and I have caught one or 

 two above Arundel, while the tide was running out and 

 the water was, for the time being, merely brackish. In 

 like manner bass are, or were when I was there, taken in 

 the Tiber as far up as Rome. Small bass move in large 

 shoals, and even the larger fish are rarely solitary. The 

 bass spawns in July. 



Not unlike a small perch, the Pope is characterised 



by the possession of but one dorsal fin instead of two; 



* Pope or and in place of the bands that mark the 



Buff. perch, the body of this fish is spotted, the 



spots generally extending to the fins. Of somewhat local 



distribution even in England the Thames and Severn are 



