24 DACE. 



stripped off, and the belly being opened, the inside 

 be taken out, it being better to take it out then than 

 before cooking. 



SECT. VIII. THE DACE. 



Cyprinus Lensiscus. 



THIS handsome fish is a favourite with anglers, although 

 but little praised as an article of food, the flesh being 

 insipid and the bones troublesome. The body is long, 

 the head small, and the irides of a pale yellow colour. 

 The scales are smaller than those of the roach; the 

 back is of a dusky colour, varied with a cast of 

 yellowish green; the sides and belly silvery. The fins 

 are sometimes of a pale red hue, and the tail much 

 forked. The dace is seldom above ten inches in length, 

 although we have heard of them being taken eighteen 

 inches in length. 



Dace are a lively fish, and go in shoals, their haunts 

 being deep waters, near the piles of bridges, where the 

 stream is gentle, and has a gravelly, sandy, or clayey 

 bottom. They are found in almost all rivers, and 

 swim swiftly, like a dart whence its name, dace, 

 or dart. They spawn in February and March, and 



