72 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
pools of Strathspey. For just as Redwings and 
Fieldfares constitute the first game of young gun- 
ners, so the Loach, the Minnow, and the Stickle- 
back are the shiny prey of the youthful angler. We 
say angler, though as yet he has never handled a 
rod, save, maybe, such as is constituted by a willow- 
wand, a bit of string, and a crooked pin. But 
the average boy has always a considerable dash of 
the primitive savage in his composition, and this 
first comes out in relation to fish rather than 
fowl. See him during his summer holidays as he 
wantons in the stream like a dace. Watch where 
his brown legs carry him ; his stealthy movements 
as he raises the likely stones; and note that 
primitive poaching-weapon in his hand. This old 
pronged fork is every whit as formidable to the 
loach and bullhead as is the “ lister” of the man- 
poacher to salmon and trout; and the wader uses 
it almost as skilfully. He has a bottle on the 
bank, and into this he pours the fish unhurt which 
he captures in his hands. Examine his simple 
aquarium, and hidden among the wet water-weeds 
you will find three or four species of “small fry.” 
The loach, the minnow, and the bullhead, are sure 
to be there, with, perhaps, a tiny stickleback; and 
somewhere outside the bottle—stuffed in cap or 
breeches’ pocket—crayfish of every age and size. 
The little Loach is essentially a fish of the 
