206 BRITISH FRESHWATER FISHES 



fail to distinguish them ; they are said to attain 

 sexual maturity when they are four years old and 

 about a foot long. 



The Bream is not much esteemed as food, although 

 it has a certain value from its numbers, the size it 

 attains, and the ease with which it can be kept in 

 ponds or transported aiive ; nowadays it is more 

 appreciated on the Continent than in this country. 



The word Bream or Breme is from the old 

 French name Breme^ the derivation of which is 

 uncertain. 



That comparatively closely related species, such as 

 the Roach and Rudd, should form a natural hybrid 

 is not surprising, but that the fishes of the Bream 

 group, characterized by the long anal fin and by the 

 compression of the abdomen behind the pelvic fins 

 to an edge which divides the scales, should hybridize 

 with the very different Roach and its allies is 

 distinctly peculiar. 



The Bream and Roach hybrid is known from 

 nearly all parts of the area inhabited by the parent 

 species ; it is represented in the British Museum 

 by a number of specimens, including some from 

 Tetworth, the Nen at Lilford, Norwich, the canal at 

 Slough, the Colne, and the Avon. The largest of 

 these, from Lilford, is more than a foot long ; a 

 little specimen from Norwich was sent in 1903, 

 with some young Bream, as representatives of the 

 " Bream-flat " of Norfolk. Very remarkable was 

 the experience of Messrs. S. Ling and J. Ladbroke, 

 who in one afternoon's fishing in the canal at Slough 

 captured seven examples of this hybrid, all 7 to 8 

 inches long, and nothing else. A specimen 10 

 inches long is shown on PI. XXX, Fig. I. 



