THE YOUNG ANGLEE. 



259 



eye ever delighted to dwell upon ; but only put your stick in 

 the water, and he will fight that if he can find nothing else to 

 battle with, and fetch it a famous knock, too, with his little hard 

 head. If once he is heartily thrashed by a rival stickleback, he 

 hides his diminished head in any hole or corner, loses all his gaudy 

 colouring, and, like a threadbare quaker, comes out again in a suit 

 of seedy- looking dull grey. When fishing for these small fry in 

 which we include minnows rods, lines, and hooks, should all be the 

 finest and most delicate that can be purchased, and the hooks espe- 

 cially the very smallest that are used. It is a good plan to whip 

 three or four hooks on fine gut, or strong horsehair, using a short 

 line of horsehair or silk, letting the hooks hang some three or four 

 inches below each other, for when they bite well three or four of 

 these little hungry fishes may be pulled out at a time. A crow- 

 quill float is quite big enough, and as for bait nothing can be better 

 than little pieces of the small red worms. 

 THE MINNOW 



Is sometimes called the ' * pink," also 



the "mennow," and mostly found in 



clean swift brooks ; is very partial to 



company, for where there is one, a 



hundred are not far off. In the . 



gloomy days of winter it hides itself 



under the mud, or among weeds. As 



for colour, it is sometimes met with of 



beautiful pearly-white, at other times and places blue and green on 



the back, and red or white on the belly, and sometimes it is found 



with a tinge of yellow. The pearly-white is preferred when it is 



used as a bait for trout, salmon, or pike. May be fished for with 



the same tackle and bait as the stickleback. 



THE BULL-HEAD, 



So called on account of its great head ; 

 also "miller's thumb," because its head 

 is flat and wide, as if one of its bull- 

 headed ancestors had been taken out of 

 the mill-dam, ages ago, and pressed 



under the heavy thumb of a miller, then let go to increase and 

 multiply the race of flat-heads. He is very partial to shoving his 

 ugly head under a stone, and leaving his tail out, which a quick- 

 handed boy very often seizes, and drags him out. As it is so fond 

 of the bottom, the bait must only just clear the ground, and a small 

 piece of worm is as good a bait as can be used. 



THE LOACH, OR GROUNDLING, 



Is about the same size as the 

 minnow, of a dusky brown colour, 

 with a compressed head, and a 

 beard formed of six fleshy tufts 

 that hang from its lips, and in 

 some places, through this pecu- 



