THE GUDGEON, RUFFE, AND MINNOW. 147 



" At a brandling once gudgeons would gape, 

 But they seem to have alter'd their forms, now. 

 Have they taken advice of the Council of Nice, 

 And rejected the Diet of Worms, now ? " 



But that must be a bit of poetic fancy, for gudgeon are very 

 fond of a nice brandling, and a " diet of worms " suits them 

 precisely. Perhaps, however, the poet had Martin Luther in 

 his eye when he wrote that. I now must pull up my line, 

 however, and, as the cheap-jack at the fair says, " show you 

 something else." 



The ruffe, sometimes called the pope, is a member of the 

 perch family, and his scientific name is Perca ceruna. He 

 is very like a small perch in shape, having the same prickly 

 fin on the back, but is a deal darker than the perch and 

 marked more like a gudgeon. The fish is small, four or five 

 inches being his extreme length ; it spawns in April, and he 

 is to be found in deep quiet corners, and like the eel is not 

 afraid of a bit of mud. He will bite freely at a worm, and 

 where the young angler takes one he will very often find 

 many more. The ruff'e is not much good, except ^ a bit of 

 practice for the young angler. 



The minnow is well known to any lad who has seen a 

 stream of water. These tiny fish also belong to the carp 

 family, and what a little beauty he is, with his splendid 

 colouring, silvery, white, brown, pink, &c., &c. When I see 

 one it always brings back to my memory the happy time of 

 my school days, when I used to catch them with a bent pin 

 and a scrap of worm. They are an excellent bait for perch, 

 &c., and for this purpose are caught in a hand net, or a 

 minnow trap specially made. They will take a scrap of worm 

 on the smallest of hooks, and any lad can catch them with a 

 stick, a bit of thread, a small piece of horsehair, a bent pin, 

 and a scrap of worm or gentle, or a tiny bit of paste. 



And now, dear reader, I have got to the end of my in- 

 l2 



