216 THE ROACH. 



This fish is remarkable for the peculiar colour of the eyes, 

 which are remarkably large, and the irides of a bright orange, in- 

 clining to red, from which circumstance it has acquired the name 

 of, "Red eye." By some it is also called the " Shallow." The rudd 

 is by no means a general fish, yet it abounds in the broads of Nor- 

 folk, and in most of the waters of that county ; as also in those of 

 Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire. It is also found in the Isis, 

 and is sometimes to be met with in the Thames. 



The Forked Tail Roach. 



Walton speaks of a small species of roach with very red fins, 

 and a very forked tail, which he considers to be a bastard breed be- 

 tween the true roach and the bream ; but as instances of hybrids 

 amongst fishes are extremely rare, there is every reason to believe 

 them a distinct species. They increase very rapidly ; some waters 

 fairly swarming with them, yet I have never met with any that ex- 

 ceeded four or five inches in length, and the greater part of them 

 have been much less. Some five and twenty years ago, they were 

 very plentiful in the mill ponds on Weston commons, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Southampton, near the residence of the late Mr.damber- 

 layne : but those ponds having been since let dry the whole race perish, 

 ed. Walton also adds that these fish are also scattered about in many 

 rivers, but he thinks not in the Thames. He says that men knowing 

 the difference between themjand the true roach, call them ruds, and 

 Mr. Yarrell seems to consider it probable these fish were the true 

 rudd already treated on ; but this can hardly be the case ; as the 

 true rudd sometimes exceeds two pounds in weight whilst the fork- 

 tails rarely attain more than two or three ounces at the very utmost, 

 bearing about the same proportion to the common rudd, as a bleak 

 does to a chub, or a ruffe to a perch. The forktails bite very freely 



