42 LRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
bourhood made a wager that he would bring to 
bank every one of a school of seventeen perch on 
a single evening. The bet was taken, and the 
feat was accomplished with only two lures—red- 
worms and a half worn-out trout-fly. It may be 
added that every fish was returned to the hole evi- 
dently none the worse for its night’s adventure. 
There is occasionally another night denizen of 
the old ‘“ Perch-hole,” which as an expert even 
out-poaches the poacher. We take our place by 
the stream-side and breathlessly wait. A faint 
whistle, unlike that of any bird, comes up-stream, 
and the dark water is moved. Trout cease to 
rise ; the whistle comes nearer, and then a rustle 
is heard. The osier-beds are visibly stirred, and 
some long, dark object makes its way between 
the parted stems. A movement would dispel the 
dark shadow. The rustle among the withy wands 
is repeated again and again, and now we know 
that the young otters have left their impregnable 
rocky bank, and are following their dam. She 
has reconnoitred, and all is safe. Paddling down- 
stream come two objects, and, arriving at the 
pool, stop, tumble and frolic, rolling over and 
over, and round and round, and performing the 
most marvellous evolutions. They swing on a 
willow spray, and dash with lightning rapidity at 
a piece of floating bark, tumble with it, wrestle 
