Pike and other Fishes 25 



the month of May each year, but at no other season did we 

 find a trace of shrimps amongst their food." 1 



To this I will only add that a Pike of about twelve pounds, 

 netted on Bala Lake in May, after it had spawned, and 

 which 1 saw opened, contained well over a pint of small fry, 

 apparently roach, none of which much exceeded an inch in 

 length. Digestion had, however, progressed too far to 

 enable much to be done in the way of their accurate identi- 

 fication. Germane to the subject, too, there comes to mind 

 a Red-throated Diver, which I once shot upon the sea coast, 

 whose gullet was filled with tiny Sand Eels, some of them 

 scarcely thicker than an ordinary needle. Verbum sat sapienti 

 is a time-worn proverb ; yet, with such valuable object 

 lessons as the above before him, how prone the angler still 

 remains to put up a more conspicuous fly, or a fatter worm, 

 or minnow, when he approaches the hole in which he expects 

 to find a big trout ! And how often is our judgment 

 warped by suspicion when we see Rook or Partridge busy 

 amongst the aphis-infected leaves of turnips, or closely 

 scrutinising, for grubs and wire-worms, too minute to attract 

 our attention, some freshly covered-in seed-bed ! 



One trout caught was gorged with Loaches, and another 

 disgorged a Bull-head (Cottus gobio) of about three inches in 

 length. This latter was in the Lliw. Though common 

 enough in the Dee, below Bala, this little fish is not 

 numerous in, or above the lake. The usual name for it 

 here is Penbwl, literally " bull-head " ; but it is also known 

 as Bawd y melinydd, or "thumb of the miller." Referring 

 to the common English name, Yarrell says that it has arisen 

 from the common practice of the miller of pressing his 

 samples with the thumb of one hand over the open palm of 

 the other, in order to gauge the quality of the meal, and 

 that constant use imparts something of the shape of this 

 fish to the man's thumb. The sense of touch which long 

 practice gave to the thumb enabled a judgment to be 

 formed of the fineness of the flour, hence the saying, " Worth 

 a miller's thumb." 



Pike are numerous in the lake, and scarcely held in check 

 1 In Shooting Times of 5th October 1907. 



