256 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



the price of a house Lamb in February, and a Pickerel, or 

 small Pike, for more than a fat Capon. 



"Pliny considered the Pike as the longest lived, and likely 

 to attain the greatest size of any freshwater fish. Pennant 

 refers to one that was ninety years old; but Gesner relates 

 that, in the year 1497, a Pike was taken at Hailbrun, in 

 Suabia, with a brazen ring attached to it, on which were 

 these words in Greek characters: 'I am the fish which was 

 first of all put into this lake by the hand of the Governor of 

 the Universe, Frederick II., the 5th of October, 1230.' This 

 fish was, therefore, 267 years old, and was said to have 

 weighed 350 Ibs. The skeleton, nineteen feet in length, was 

 long preserved at Manheim as a great curiosity in natural 

 history. The lakes of Scotland have produced Pike weighing 

 55 Ibs. weight; and some of the Irish lakes are said to have 

 afforded Pike of 70 Ibs." 



Cyprinidce. The family of the Carp includes the Minnow, 

 the Bleak, the Rudd, the Bream, the Tench, the Gudgeon, 

 and other well-known freshwater fishes. The Golden Carp 

 (Cyprinus auratus), or Gold and Silver-fishes, as they are 

 more generally called, have been originally imported into 

 these countries, but authors are not agreed as to the precise 

 year. The Carp (Cyprinus carpio) itself is also a naturalised 

 species, but introduced at so remote a date that, in the "Boke 

 of St. Albans," printed at Westminster in 1496, it is men- 

 tioned: "The Carpe is a dayntous fishe, but there ben but 

 fewe in Englonde." 



The Bream is in such repute on the Continent, that an old 

 French proverb says, "he that hath Bream in his pond is 

 able to bid his friend welcome. " And it may be inferred from 

 a couplet in Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 

 that the feeding and eating of Bream was more in fashion 

 in the days of Edward III. than at the present time 



" Full many a fair Partrich liadde he in mewe, 

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



To one class of our young readers, it may perhaps be more 

 interesting to know that from the silvery-looking scales of 

 this family of fishes, the material is derived for making the 

 gorgeous necklaces of artificial pearl which are so temptingly 

 displayed in the toy-shops. 



* Pike. 



