548 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 



Astracus, and in it there are/J/fc with spotted (or speckled) skins; 

 what the natives of the country call them you had better ask the 

 Macedonians. These fish feed on a fly which is peculiar to the 

 country, and which hovers over the river. It is not like flies 

 found elsewhere, nor does it resemble a wasp in appearance, nor 

 in shape would one justly describe it as a midge or a bee, yet it 

 has something of each of these. In boldness it is like a fly, in 

 size you might call it a bee, it imitates the colour of the wasp, and 

 it hums like a bee. The natives call it the Hippouros. As these 

 flies seek their food over the river, they do not escape the obser- 

 vation of the fish swimming below. When then a fish observes 

 a fly hovering above, it swims quietly up, fearing to agitate the 

 water, lest it should scare away its prey, then coming up by its 

 shadow, it opens its jaws and gulps down the fly, like a wolf 

 carrying off a sheep from the flock, or an eagle a goose from the 

 farmyard ; having done this it withdraws under the rippling water. 

 Now though the fishermen know of this, they do not use these 

 flies at all for bait for the fish ; for if a man's hand touch them, 

 they lose their colour, their wings decay, and they become unfit 

 for food for the fish. For this reason they have nothing to do 

 with them, hating them for their bad character ; but they have 

 planned a snare for the fish, and get the better of them by their 

 fisherman's craft. They fasten red (crimson red) wool round a 

 hook and fit on to the wool two feathers which grow under a 

 cocks wattles, and which in colour are like wax. Their rod is 

 six feet long and the line is of the same length. Then they throw 

 their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the colour, 

 comes up, thinking from the pretty sight to get a dainty mouthful; 

 when, however, it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook and 

 enjoys a bitter repast, a captive." 



It may be taken for granted that these " spotted " fish 

 were some kind of trout, or at least members of the 

 Salmonidce family, who are still so open to having a rise 

 taken out of them by the " fraudful fly." ^Elian also 

 describes minutely a variety of methods of fish capture, 

 and among them a very singular mode of taking eels, 



