Pike and Wildfowl 29 



On one large lake, famous for its pike, a keeper once told 

 me how he had actually seen a brood of ducklings dis- 

 appear. The u decking " originally consisted of eleven 

 birds, and he was watching them disporting themselves 

 upon the water, when a pike rushed at them and seized 

 first one and then another of the little ones, the alarmed 

 mother hastily making for the shore with those that re- 

 mained. A few days afterwards he again saw the brood, by 

 that time reduced to five, near the same spot, and again saw 

 one captured by a pike. A week later they had all dis- 

 appeared, and his not unnatural inference was that they had 

 all fallen victims to the fish. 



On Bala Lake one afternoon I was watching a Dabchick 

 diving about near the railway line, when a big swirl disturbed 

 the water, and as the bird never appeared again, and there 

 was neither cover at hand for its concealment, nor any 

 cause for it to hide, 1 have not a doubt that it was seized 

 under water by a pike. Once when a half-pound perch 

 was being landed on the lake, it was seized by a jack of 

 scarcely eighteen inches in length, within a yard or two of 

 my rod, and both fish were successfully drawn ashore. On 

 several occasions my flies were taken by perch upon the 

 Lliw, the largest of those landed weighing from i|- Ibs. 

 to 2 Ibs. apiece : one of about half a pound, caught on 

 the Llafar on 8th June, had not yet spawned, and milt 

 ran from it like milk when it was handled. Some of the 

 large perch taken in the nets were beautiful fish, highly 

 coloured and very deep. The largest that I saw weighed 

 a little over 2 J Ibs., but the keepers told me that occasion- 

 ally much larger ones are caught, one four or five years 

 ago having created a record of " about six or seven pounds." 

 Perch becomes Perc in Cymry, and the Pike is T Penhwyad. 

 I saw one or two Gudgeon (Crothell) taken by perch- 

 fishers in the Lliw and the Llafar, but they are not 

 numerous above the lake. The Minnow is Crothell y dom, 

 or Sil-y-dom, and Bychan bysg. 



