4 2 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 



bourhood made a wager that he would bring to 

 bank every one of a school of seventeen perch on 

 a single evening. The bet was taken, and the 

 feat was accomplished with only two lures red- 

 worms and a half worn-out trout-fly. It may be 

 added that every fish was returned to the hole evi- 

 dently none the worse for its night's adventure. 



There is occasionally another night denizen of 

 the old " Perch-hole," which as an expert even 

 out-poaches the poacher. We take our place by 

 the stream- side and breathlessly wait. A faint 

 whistle, unlike that of any bird, comes up-stream, 

 and the dark water is moved. Trout cease to 

 rise ; the whistle comes nearer, and then a rustle 

 is heard. The osier-beds are visibly stirred, and 

 some long, dark object makes its way between 

 the parted stems. A movement would dispel the 

 dark shadow. The rustle among the withy wands 

 is repeated again and again, and now we know 

 that the young otters have left their impregnable 

 rocky bank, and are following their dam. She 

 has reconnoitred, and all is safe. Paddling down- 

 stream come two objects, and, arriving at the 

 pool, stop, tumble and frolic, rolling over and 

 over, and round and round, and performing the 

 most marvellous evolutions. They swing on a 

 willow spray, and dash with lightning rapidity at 

 a piece of floating bark, tumble with it, wrestle 



