THE TENCH. 85 



widely different to the carp, although it must be admitted that both 

 fish are almost always to be found together in lakes, if not in running 

 streams. 



% Willoughby says the tench spawns when the wheat ia in blossom, 

 which is invariably true. And a curious season this is with tench ! 

 The homely saying, " Mad as a March hare," might have an equally 

 forcible analogue in as "Mad as a June tench," for mad or foolish they 

 are at this interesting time, and may be readily taken by the hand. I 

 have repeatedly seen the males chasing their fair partners so roughly as 

 to so completely disorder their faculties that they have leaped on dry 

 land and been secured. Their ova is greenish in hue and prodigiously 

 numerous ; in a female weighing 3lb. no less than 297,000 eggs have 

 been estimated. 



The male fish is distinguishable from the female by the curious shape 

 of his ventral fins. In the female they are of ordinary size and make, 

 but those of the male are much larger and more muscular, and look like 

 a green concave shell, the concave side being uppermost. About fifty 

 years is the greatest recorded age of tench. They may, like bream and 

 carp, be carried long journeys in wet moss, being extremely tenacious 

 of life. 



The habitat of the tench, like that of the grayling, seems to be some- 

 what local. It is, however, found all over England, Holland, and rest of 

 the European lake provinces, and it was said to have been first intro- 

 duced into England in 1514. In Ireland there are but few of these fish, 

 and still fewer in Scotland. The tench seems to thrive and multiply best 

 in muddy water, old clay pits, and such like excavations, and its faculty 

 of burying itself in the mud is well known. A tench weighing lllb. is 

 said in " Daniel's Rural Sports" to have been taken from a choked up 

 pit, where it had probably been for many years. This is the account : 

 "A piece of water which had been ordered to be filled up, and into 

 which wood and rubbish had been thrown for years, was directed to be 

 cleared out. Labourers were accordingly employed ; and, almost choked 

 up by weeds and mud, BO little water remained that no person expected 

 to see any fish, except a few eels ; yet nearly two hundred brace of 

 tench of all sizes, and as many perch, were found. After the pond was 

 thought to be quite free, under some roots there seemed to be an animal 

 which was conjectured to be an otter ; the place was surrounded ; and 

 on opening an entrance among the roots a tench was found of most 

 singular form, having literally assumed the shape of the hole in which 

 he had of course for many years been confined. His length from eye to 

 caudal fork was 33in. ; his circumference, almost to the tail, was 27in. ; 

 his weight lllb. 9ioz. : the colour was also singular, his belly being that 



