time, a yellow perch who also was hunt- 

 ing a breakfast, discovered a minnow 

 who had strayed into deep water far 

 from his home. Perchy immediately 

 gave chase, while the alarmed minnow 

 swiftly darted toward safety in his birth- 

 place under a clump of pickerel grass 

 near the shore. As they passed our 

 boat, the race was headed straight for 

 a pair of yellow legs a few rods away. 



Ten seconds later, a snake like neck 

 uncoiled and straightened while an open- 

 ed pair of shears, with lightning speed 

 descended into the water. When they 

 lifted, the shears were closed across the 

 body of a half pound yellow perch. Bill 

 thus held his fish an instant, then tossed 

 it in the air and it descended head first 

 into his wide open mouth. A swelling 

 slowly moving downward marked the 

 passage through a long gullet into his 

 crop, of a breakfast that six and a half 

 hours Bill had been patiently fishing for. 



22 



