THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. 1 39 



beds, these receptacles retain a certain amount of moisture during 

 the dry period, and are packed so closely together that it would be 

 difficult to ride a horse across the flats without sinking into them at 

 almost every step. Although the ordinary food of this fish consists 

 almost altogether of soft grasses and aquatic vegetation, they will 

 bite freely at grasshoppers, worms, and the larvae of bees and hornets. 

 Like the common perch, they proceed in shoals, and as their appetites 

 are delicate and capricious, light tackle should alone be used for their 

 capture. During some hours of the day they feed on the bottom, 

 and at others closer to the surface of the water, in consequence of 

 which the depth of the sink should be constantly changed, until a 

 favourable result is obtained. Besides netting enormous quantities 

 of these fish, the natives also kill them by setting most ingeniously- 

 contrived traps (made from dry reeds and papyrus) between the deep 

 bed of the river and the shallow water of the inundated lands. The 

 Culper is exceedingly good eating, and comes in quite as a luxury to 

 anyone who has been subsisting for a length of time on venison. 



In addition to the above, there are two other varieties of the Perch 

 tribe inhabiting the Zambesi, Botletle, and Okavango Rivers. One is 

 an extremely fine fish, very much resembling the American fresh-water 

 bass, and the colour of which is golden green indistinctly marked 

 with transverse bands of a darker shade. It has been caught with 

 ordinary hand lines baited with the entrails of Guinea Fowl, some 

 specimens weighing up to four and five pounds, and is very fine eating. 

 It frequents deep, rapid-running water, and when hooked with a 

 rod and line gives excellent play. 



The. other is a smaller variety, which scarcely exceeds seven or 

 eight inches in length, and it can be distinguished by the peculiarity 

 of thie mouth, which is large and capable of being extended forward 

 to a considerable distance. It will be found in shallow rapid run- 

 ning portions of rivers which have rocky bottoms. It is the only 

 species of African fresh-water fish that has been caught with an 

 artificial fly. 



The Pike-like F \sh {Sarcodaces odo^ — {araWy of Characinidoe : 

 Giinther.) 



This paradoxical fish is uncomtnonly like the Pike in shape and 

 colour. Its formidable teeth are, however, unretractile, the two 

 lower fangs, so to speak, fitting into the cavity of the nostrils ; and 



