154 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



of Norwich, landed one from that river weighing 6 lb. 8 oz., 

 and has one in a glass case in his house which pulled the scale 

 to 7 lb. 5 oz. Another gentleman, whose name I have mislaid, 

 killed two in September, 1901, in the Wensum weighing 

 6 lb. and 7 lb. 13 oz. respectively. He states that he knows 

 " authoritatively " of bream from the Wensum weighing 

 9 lb. 4 oz., 9 lb., and several others over 7 lb. 



The White Bream, or Breamflat {^bramis hlkca) 



Fins. 

 Dorsal: 11 rays. 

 Anal: 22 to 27 rays. 

 Ventral : 9 or 10 rays. 

 Pectoral : 14 rays. 



Teeth. 

 Pharyngeal, in two rows, i 

 or 2 and 5 — 5 and 2 or i ; 

 notched at the ends and 

 sh'ghtly hooked. 



The white bream, or breamflat, is neither so large a fish as 

 the common bream, nor so abundant in England, where it is 

 only found in the Trent, the Cam, and a few other streams 

 of the eastern watershed ; but it has a wide range on the 

 Continent north of the Alps, and is one of the commonest 

 fishes of Central Europe. 



The marked and constant difi'erence in dentition between 

 this fish and the common bream — the teeth of the latter being 

 arranged in a single series, those of the white bream in two rows — 

 has led some naturalists to place it in the separate genus of 

 'Blicca ; but this seems an unnecessary and artificial separation 

 of two species which are so closely similar in other respects. 

 Besides the difference in the teeth, the breamflat may be 

 distinguished from the bream — first, by its colour, which is 

 always white and silvery with bluish reflections, without the 

 brown and brassy tints of the other, the iris being silvery, flecked 

 with green, the pectoral and ventral fins more or less red 

 at the base ; second, by the nearly symmetrical lobes of the 

 tail fin ; and third, by its average size, which is far less than 

 that of the bream, a breamflat seldom attaining a foot in 



