386 



Of the rivers near London producing Bream, the Mole and 

 the Medway are the most noted ; it also occurs in the Re- 

 gent's Canal. Bream swim in shoals, feeding on worms, 

 and other soft-bodied animals, with some vegetable sub- 

 stances ; and if the water they inhabit suits them, which 

 is generally the case, as they are hardy in their nature, they 

 grow rapidly, and spawn in May. At this season one female 

 is frequently followed by three or four males, and they bear 

 at this time a whitish tubercle on their scales, which causes 

 them to feel rough to the hand : this has been considered by 

 some as a disease, but is in fact only a periodical assumption, 

 which, as in others of the Cyprinidee, disappears when 

 the season of reproduction is past. Bloch states the num- 

 ber of ova in the female roe at one hundred and thirty 

 thousand. 



The flesh of the Bream being generally considered insipid 

 and bony, they are not in great estimation for table, though 

 the breeding of them is cultivated, or rather permitted, as 

 useful to feed Pike, and other voracious fishes. They 

 afford great amusement to the angler ; and the more the 

 ground is baited to collect them at a particular spot, the 

 greater the sport. The flesh is in more request on the 

 Continent than in this country, if we may credit the French 

 proverb quoted by Isaac Walton, which says, " he that 

 hath Bream in his pond is able to bid his friend welcome." 



It may also be inferred, from a couplet in Chaucer's Pro- 

 logue to the Canterbury Tales, that the feeding and eating 

 of Bream was more in fashion in the days of Edward the 

 Third than at the present time. 



" Full many a fair partrich hadde he in rnewe, 

 And many a Breme and many a Luce* in stewe." 



* Luce, a Pike. 



