CONCERNING SMALL FRY. 77 



tansy," the little fishes must be fried with yolk of 

 eggs, the flowers of cowslips and of primroses, 

 and a twig of tansy. In colour the minnow is 

 dappled, or waved like a panther, with sky-blue 

 sides, and milk-white belly. " Piscator " sets down 

 "the pink" as a sharp biter, and a fit sporting 

 fish for boys, young anglers, or women that love 

 recreation. 



The minnow haunts like spots to those which 

 trout love, and is fond of fresh, running water. 

 Bright, pebbly bottoms it prefers to sediment, and 

 being essentially a social fish, it invariably swims 

 in shoals. If you approach stealthily from the 

 meadow-bank into " Minnow Bay," you may see 

 the pink " at home," and of all little fishes he is 

 the most sprightly and interesting. Watch the 

 silvery shoal in its graceful evolutions, and you 

 will know well what is meant by the poetry of 

 motion. The only fit parallel to a school of 

 silvery minnows in the water, is a flock of 

 burnished starlings in the air. There is no ap- 

 parent guiding spirit, yet the fifty move like one. 

 They progress as by some hidden force ; the 

 water divides before them, and they wave through 

 its liquidness. Minnows have the power common 

 to most fishes of rapidly assimilating to the 

 varying colour of the stream. They change 

 from brown to gold, from gold to brown. To 



