20 FISHING GOSSIP. 
ing and howling over his remains, as they are buf-. 
feted about by the waves. Such is the natural end 
of ferox—tfull of indignities indeed, but from which 
it is consoling to reflect that the insensibility of 
death has plucked the sting ! 
The food of this distinguished member of his 
family, like his place in systematic arrangements, 
has been a matter of doubt and dispute. That his 
whole bill of fare cannot be correctly filled up is 
very probable. But sufficient data, I think, exist to 
make out a tolerable carte of his favourite dishes. 
Oh! those words of learned sound, and little mean- 
ing, that must be used to describe this food in the 
jargon of science, make one almost shudder. That 
he is, then, insectivorous, vermivorous, molluscivorous, 
piscivorous, and probably herbivorous, is all but certain. 
T have taken him with at least twenty different kinds 
of lake flies. I have seen him in his junior state 
dragged up like a malefactor amongst slimy eels on 
a night-line baited with worms. He has risen to my 
hook baited with five species of little fishes—namely, 
the loach, stickleback, fry of trout and pike and 
the gudgeon. His addiction to these dainties has 
been proved to me numberless times by a very un- 
willing visit to my net. There is, however, as far I 
have been able to observe, one condition necessary to 
his indulgence in these luxuries. They must be ina 
comparatively minute form, and presented to him on 
