PISHES. 121 



worms, larvae of gnats, or pieces of raw meat. After a time 

 it will learn to eat a little vermicelli. The body is cylindrical 

 in shape, and olive-brown in colour, and spotted ; a dark line 

 runs along the sides. The eye is placed high up in the 

 head, and the mouth possesses two small barbels, one on 

 each side. The scales are large and the snout is somewhat 

 blunt. This fish sometimes grows 7in. long. 



The Roach {Leuciscus rutilus) (Fig. 91), if young, will live 

 fairly weU in an aquariimi. He is rather a handsome fish, 

 and by no means the " fresh- water sheep " which some people 

 think him to be. He may not have the intelligence of the 



Fig. 91. Roach (Leuciscus rutilus). 



carp, but he has certainly enough common sense to profit 

 by experience, for he soon becomes so suspicious that it 

 is by no means an easy matter to catch him with rod and 

 line. Roach are found nearly everywhere, and in great 

 numbers ; for though trout feed upon their eggs, and pike 

 and perch upon their fry ; though so many men like to 

 catch them when mature; and though they so often fall 

 victims to more than one disease, they are still able, by 

 means of their wonderful reproductive powers, to more than 

 hold their own in the battle of life. When the aquarium- 

 keeper wishes to procure Roach of the right size for his 

 tank, he should, during the autumn, pass his hand-net along 

 the weedy edges of those streams which run into some river 

 where these fish are know to exist. Roach ought to be kept 



