96 BRITISn FISH AND FISHEIUES. 



the muddiest ponds in Essex, which a few 

 months since were placed before the -writer at 

 table, were of very superior flavour, and finely 

 grown. Their colour, for he saw them when 

 alive, was very dark, with a pink tinge about 

 and under the pectoral fins.* 



The tench breeds in June and July ; of its 

 fecundity we may form some estimate, when we 

 learn from Bloch, that in a fish of four pounds' 

 weight he found nearly three hundred thou- 

 sand eggs composing the roe. Nothing is more 

 easy than to stock appropriate ponds with this 

 excellent fish, to which the carp is most decidedly 

 inferior. The male fish is at once distinguish- 

 able from the female, by the large size of the 

 ventral fins ; the proportion of the males 

 should be double to that of the females, and 

 well-grown specimens should be selected. The 

 food of the tench consists of worms, larvae, and 

 various vegetable matters. During the winter, 

 these fishes retire to holes and snug recesses, 

 and stir but little, indeed, they are not among 

 the most active of their tribe at any time ; 

 sometimes they get blocked up in their retreats, 

 but this is of little consequence, for such is 



* It IS reniarkable that I^Ir. Yairell quotes a similar state- 

 ment by Daniel, respecting tench taken at Mundeu Hall Fleet, 

 in Essex, 



