BAGNALL’S BUNGLES. 101 
Such commonplace names as the pike, perch, 
etc., are quite unworthy of Mr. Bagnall’s talents ; 
they become the “pirate of the waters ”—the “ strug- 
gling tyrant”—and so on; whilst the “mottled 
sides” of the former “remind him forcibly of a 
dappled grey horse.” We will not suggest that there 
might be any other quadruped not quite so elevated 
in the scale of intelligence, and yet bearing possibly 
an equal resemblance to Esox luctus. 
Mr. Bagnall is not much more fortunate when he 
tries his hand at verse. He wilfully alters and mis- 
quotes Thomson’s beautiful lines, commencing— 
“ But should you lure, , 
From his dark haunt beneath the tangled roots 
Of pendent trees, the monarch of the brook.” ... 
and makes them applicable to the pike instead of 
to the trout. A few of the original lines with which 
the chapters are headed are more respectable than 
‘might have been expected ; but for the most part are 
well mated with their prose congeners: ¢g.— 
“ With silvery scale and ruby fin, 
Body deep, yet somewhat thin, 
Forked tail, arched back, firm flesh and white, 
A beauteous picture—pleasing sight !” 
A more pleasing sight we should have imagined, 
at least in an edible point of view, if the fish had 
been somewhat less “thin” and more “fat.” But fish 
that are “flat and thin” have evidently a morbid 
