184 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



so well is this simulated by the broad bands of 

 green and yellow which run from the dark back 

 down the sides. It is only when he turns far on 

 his side and gives you a glimpse of red fin and 

 white belly that he is plainly visible, and only 

 desperate need will make him thus turn. 



After perch and bream have left, satisfied, 

 a little group of thumbling hornpouts come and 

 grub and dabble in the muddy hole whence the 

 unio came, feeding upon I know not what ; prob- 

 ably tiny infusorise of the fresh water. These 

 little black cats are the busiest folk of the brook 

 at this time of the year, and just whence they 

 come or whither they go I cannot say. If you 

 fish the waters with angle worms you will not 

 pull out one of these little fellows till the summer 

 is fairly on. Then, dog days having arrived, 

 you will get a chance to catch nothing else, so 

 long as one of them remains in the pool you 

 choose. They are great angle-worm'chasers and 

 will get across a pool and grab a bait before any 

 other denizen of the place can possibly get to it. 

 Their agility is the more surprising when one 

 remembers that the grown hornpout is but a slug- 

 gish chap and that they are not built on lines that 

 presage swiftness. You may catch the big horn- 



