PISHES. 



125 



Its back is brown, and its sides are silvery, tinted sometimes 

 with gold. The scales are rather rough. The eyes and the 

 fins are red, the lower fins being darker than the upper. The 

 dorsal fin is behind the ventral. This fish does not often 

 exceed Iflb. in weight. The late Mr. Frank Buckland has 

 given the following rule for distinguishing the Rudd from the 

 roach : " In the dorsal fin of the roach it will be found that 



Fig. 94. EuDD (LEUOiscns erythrophthalmus). . 



the front ray stands almost even with the front ray of the 

 [jjentral fin, but in the Budd the dorsal fin stands evenly 

 between the anal and the ventral fins. The eye in the Rudd 

 is of a much brighter red than the roach." 



The Minnow {Leuciscus phoxinus} (Fig. 96) is a beautiful, 

 hardy, and, as a schoolboy 

 would say, "cheeky" little fish. 

 Though Minnows are generally 

 found in clear and running 

 water, yet there are no fish 

 which are more ready to take 

 kindly to a life in confinement 

 than they are. They wiU live, 



apparently happily, where one would never expect a fish to 

 exist at aU. I have known two Minnows to live for six 

 weeks or two months in a small bottle, containing less than 

 half -a- pint of water, and the surface of the water exposed to 



Fig. 95. Minnow 

 (Leuciscus phoxinus). 



