ROACH AND RUDD. 49 



dropped quietly among the shoal. There was a 

 faint show of concentric rings in the water, then 

 a mad plunge, and a ten minutes' fight. The 

 single strand of* hair held out bravely, and a 

 glorious rudd was pulled aboard, much to the 

 excitement of the girls and dogs. It was a 

 deep, handsome fish, with red eyes ; cheek and 

 gills golden yellow, this darkening to blue and 

 green on the back ; sides bright coppery, golden 

 -below ; belly tinged with pink, and shot with 

 metallic" lustre ; all the fins red ; the body 

 suddenly narrowing towards the tail, which is 

 deeply indented. One of the characteristics of 

 the rudd is its tenacity of life, fish sometimes 

 showing signs of life after having been out of 

 the water twelve hours. During the day the 

 rudd lies in the deepest part of its haunt, making 

 for the shallows at morning and evening. At 

 the former time it is a ground-feeder ; but 

 when it rises from the deeper water it takes flies 

 from the surface. We came to the knowledge 

 of this fact after a somewhat heated experience. 

 After fishing all day and taking nothing save a few 

 small roach, the sun got behind a dark thunder- 

 cloud, when the rudd immediately commenced to 

 rise. As twilight increased the mere seemed 

 everywhere broken by bubbles, and this time, 

 equipped with flies dressed on fine gut, the 



