514 TEN YEAES IN SWEDEN. 



as the best of the whole genus. Its general length is about 

 a foot, but they are often taken larger, and a bream of 4 to 

 5 Ib. is in Wermland considered about a middle-sized fish. 

 They are particularly fond of those ponds and waters where 

 the " quill wort" (Isoetes Lacustris, L.) abounds. They are 

 considered so shy a fish, that in certain parishes which border 

 on the Lake Wener it is forbidden to ring the bells for 

 church during the spawning season, which usually takes 

 place early in June. 



The younger fish are so unlike the old ones, that they 

 are by some considered a distinct species, G. Farenus, Art.; 

 Braxenpanka, Sw. 



The bream is met with to about the polar circle, but 

 does not go over the Lapland frontier. On the Finland 

 coast is met with in brackish water. 



78. ABRAMIS BALLEBUS, Cuv. Faren. D. 



This fine- shaped bream may be distinguished at a 

 glance from any other of the family by its long cloven 

 tail, its smaller scales, and its long anal fin; jaws 

 equal; 16 scales in a row between the lateral line and 

 dorsal. 



Is certainly the rarest of all the breams in Sweden, but 

 is found in the Wener, and in fact in many of the midland 

 lakes, but nowhere so common as in the " Malar." Nils- 

 son gives the size of the specimen he describes as 1 ft. 

 2 in. ; I never saw one so large. They spawn in the end 

 of April or May, and Nilsson mentions a curious mark of 

 distinction between the sexes at this time. The male has 

 under the lateral line, over the hinder part of the anal fin, a 

 yellowish patch rough to the finger, on which the scales 

 are covered with a slimy skin full of small warts ; and these 

 warts are also even apparent on the pectorals. This dis- 

 appears after the spawning season. I have remarked this 

 myself, in a specimen taken in the Lake Fryken; and 

 curiously enough I have remarked that the male roach in 

 the spawning season are covered with sharp tubercles all 

 over the body, especially on the head. 



