THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 207 



bastard small roach that breeds in ponds, with a very forked tail, 

 and of a very small size, which some say is bred by the bream 

 and right roach, and some ponds are stored with these beyond 

 belief: and knowing men that know their difference, call them 

 ruds,* they differ from the true roach as much as a herring from 

 a pilchard : and these bastard breed of roach are now scattered 

 in many rivers, but I think not in the Thames, which I believe 

 affords the largest and fattest in this nation, especially below 

 London bridsre : the roach is a leather-mouthed fish, and has a 

 kind of saw-like teeth in his throat. And lastly, let me tell you, 

 the roach makes an angler excellent sport, especially the great 

 roaches about London, where I think there be the best roach- 

 anglers : and I think the best trout-anglers be in Derbyshire, for 

 the waters there are clear to an extremity. 



Next, let me tell you, you shall fish for this Roach in winter 



* The anglers and the scientific men are at issue on this point. Salter, 

 in his Angler's Guide, says, " I have no doubt, but that the fish called a 

 rudd (from ruddy ?) is a true roach, but a little altered in shape from being 

 put into ponds not congenial to their habits and nature ; for I have known 

 ponds stocked with roach from rivers, and in a few years none were to be 

 found but numerous rudd. Previous to the roach being put into the same 

 pond, a rudd or a bream were never seen." Palmer Hackle says that " the 

 rudd is called roach-carp in France, and that it is most probably a genuine 

 cross between the roach and the carp." On the other hand Rennie calls 

 the rudd, Barbtts Orfus (J), " quite a different species from the roach or 

 the bream." Donovan, British Fishes, xL, observes: " Linnseus having 

 described Cyprinus Orfus as an inhabitant of the British waters, without 

 speaking of the other species Erythropthalmu^, as a British fish, the two 

 kinds have been erroneously confounded as one species by some writers in 

 this country." Bloch takes occasion to doubt whether the orphe is ever 

 found in the British waters, and adds, that the English rudd is the French 

 rotengle. Yarrell, commenting on this passage of Walton, says : " It is 

 probable that the fishes here alluded to were the true rudd {Leiiciscus 

 Erythropthalmus), and the second species of bream already described ; 

 and an opinion apparently prevailed, notwithstanding the numbers in 

 which they existed, that they were hybrids. The instances in which 

 animals in a truly natural state make selections beyond their own species 

 are probably very rare. Hybrids and permanent varieties are generally 

 the consequences of restriction and domestication ; and f confess my 

 doubts of the existence of hybrid fishes." It is presumed that most scien- 

 tific men will agree with the last opinion. — im. Ed. 



