98 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



over her finny playmates, who rejected all overtures from 

 the rest of the neighbours, and would have nothing to do 

 with any but their tried friend/' They would trust no one 

 else, let him come with food ever so tempting ; and when 

 a few years afterwards the child unfortunately died, during 

 a visitation of cholera, the fish are said to have shown the 

 most marked symptoms of distress, swimming disconso- 

 lately up and down at the spot where their protector was 

 wont to look for them, and refusing the food offered by the 

 good-natured townsfolk. " Thus," as the writer adds, " it 

 will be seen that even fishes are not so cold-blooded but 

 that they will recognize the law of kindness " *. 



At Sir J. Bowyer*s, near Uxbridge, Mr. Bradley tells us, 

 there is a pond full of tame Pike which can be called 

 together at pleasure. Mr. S alter f was acquainted with a 

 person who for several years kept, in a water-butt, a Perch, 

 which came to the surface for his food whenever his owner 

 tapped on the side of the butt. According to ^Elian, the 

 Chad was lured to its destruction by the sound of castanets. 

 Professor Rennie J states that in Germany this fish is still 

 taken by nets hung with rows of little bells arranged so 

 as to chime in harmony ; and, without going back to the 

 story of Amphion and the Dolphins, or the old Scottish 

 Harper who, according to the ballad, " harped a fish 

 out o' the sa't water," we may find hundreds of well- 

 authenticated anecdotes, leading clearly to the conclusion 



* Boston Transcript, United States. 



t Preface to Angler's Guide. J Alphabet of Angling. 



