146 THE ANGLEK-NATURALIST. 



THE ROACH. 



(Leitciscus rutilus*.) 



The Roach or, as it is technically named, the " Red 

 Dace," from the scarlet colour of the fins is a great 

 favourite with London anglers, who, at any time hetween 

 August and May, may be seen perched, regardless of 

 safety, upon projecting trees, bridge-buttresses, and, in- 

 deed, every other accessible ' coigne of vantage ' between 

 Battersea Fields and Walton on Thames, or clustering 

 on the hundred-and-one lock-gates with which the pretty 

 River Lea is intersected almost to its source. From these 

 perilous eminences they contemplate and we may pre- 

 sume are also contemplated by the intelligent Leucis- 

 cini, which, notwithstanding, seldom fail to find their way, 

 in greater or less numbers, into the cockney's basket. The 

 Londoners, in fact, bear away the palm from all com- 

 * Leuciscus, a Dace, Gr. ; rutilus, red, Lat. 



