THE BLEAK — THE POPE — THE LOACH. 331 



they are neither worth the cooking nor eating, haying 

 a muddy flavour, or, at the best, being tasteless ; while 

 they are too large to eat like whitebait, and too small to 

 get a solid mouthful from. And yet I am tenderly dis- 

 posed to this little Leuciscus, for with him I associate my 

 first acquaintance with the Upper Thames, and in fishing 

 for bleak (" Alburnos prsedam puerilibus hamis,") I " tried 

 my ''prentice hand," and took my first and self-taught 

 lessons in angling beneath the wide-spreading branches 

 of the old oak-tree at the Datchet end of the Eton playing 

 fields, while yet a very small boy, but deeply enamoured 

 of the Thames and its fishes. Young beginners may do 

 worse in the way of getting their eyes and hands in than 

 by fishing for bleak. 



The last remark I will add of our little friend is that 

 he makes a capital spinning bait, though his flesh is 

 rather tender. Indeed, in spinning for Thames trout I 

 prefer about a four-inch bleak to any other fish, as it spins 

 so truly and " glitters " admirably. He is too easily killed 

 to be of any value as a live bait. 



The Buff (also written Euffe), or Pope, is another of the 

 small fry found in the Thames and other streams, though 

 seldom angled for. It is said that he was first noticed 

 ichthyologically by Dr. Caius, who gave him the name of 

 Aapredo, from asper, "rough/'' He is one of the Per aides 

 family, as a tyro might guess from his spinous dorsal 

 fin, and so some naturalists call him Perca cernua, the 

 title of cernua being given him, it is said, because " his 

 head looks downwards," — a most unsatisfactory explana- 

 tion ! By others he is denominated Perca fluviatilis 

 minor ; while others, again, call him Acerina vulgaris, 

 making Acerina (from acer, " sharp ") a genus of the 



