98 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



over her finny playmates^ who rejected all overtures from 

 the rest of the neighbours, and would have nothing to do 

 ^rith any but their tried friend." They would trust no one 

 else, let him come with food ever so temptiag ; and when 

 a few years afterwards the child unfortunately died, during 

 a visitation of cholera, the fish are said to have shown the 

 most marked symptoms of distress, swimming disconso- 

 lately up and down at the spot where their protector was 

 wont to look for them, and refusing the food offered by the 

 good-natured townsfolk. " Thus," as the writer adds, " it 

 will be seen that even fishes are not so cold-blooded but 

 that they wiU recognize the law of kindness " *. 



At Sir J. Bowyer's, near Uxbridge, Mr. Bradley tells us, 

 there is a pond full of tame Pike which can be caUed 

 together at pleasure. Mr. Salter f was acquainted with a 

 person who for several years kept, in a water-butt, a Perch, 

 which came to the surface for his food whenever his owner 

 tapped on the side of the butt. According to ^lian, the 

 Chad was lured to its destruction by the sound of castanets. 

 Professor Rennief states that in Germany this fish is still 

 taken by nets hung with rows of little bells arranged so 

 as to chime in harmony ; and, without going back to the 

 story of Amphion and the Dolphias, or the old Scottish 

 Harper who, according to the ballad, "harp'd a fish 

 out o' the sa't water," we may find hundreds of well- 

 authenticated anecdotes, leading clearly to the conclusion 



* Boston Transcript, United States. 



t Preface to Angler's Guide. % Alphabet of Angling. 



