532 Fishes. 



is said to lie in wait with some such object in view — he will assuredly 

 make a meal of it. 



In the warm evenings in the latter part of summer the eel may be 

 seen in great numbers in the very shallow water near the bank, in 

 places where the stream is not strong. As the observer walks gently 

 along, they are continually darting out before him into the deeper 

 water. 



In May the " eel-fare " takes place in the Whitadder to a consider- 

 able extent. They are two or three days, I am told, in passing : and 

 considering the great rapidity of the current, the address and activity 

 displayed by these minute creatures are very extraordinary. I often 

 see them in the burns or brooks leading into the river. In one of 

 these burns they have to surmount three or four falls from six inches 

 to a foot high. They may generally be seen, and not very far be- 

 low the surface of the water, in places where the presence of a few 

 fibres or roots, or a tuft of grass &c, permits them to insert their 

 bodies into what may serve as a support. Ten or a dozen may be 

 found in these spots in very close compass. But if any attempt is 

 made to catch them, they extricate themselves with the greatest faci- 

 lity from the grass or fibres, and speedily escape the danger. It was 

 remarkable that though the eels were so numerous in the river I fre- 

 quented as a boy, I never heard of or saw anything like the eel-fare. 



There is a vignette in Mr. Yarrell's Birds (iii. 429), whereby " hangs 

 a tale." An incident somewhat similar to the one there depicted 

 came to my knowledge as having taken place in the Wye. A fisher- 

 man had set his lines for eels and trout ; and on taking them up in 

 the morning, he found on one of the hooks, or rather foot-lines ter- 

 minating in a hook, both an eel and a trout. The eel was not a large 

 one, and had taken the bait and hooked itself: the trout, which was 

 of fair size, had taken the eel : and no doubt began to think he had 

 " caught a tartar " when he found himself held fast by his prey. For 

 the eel in its twistings contrived to get its tail out at the gills of the 

 trout, and continuing its convolutions, fairly " nailed " him ; he was 

 unable to release himself, and so became an example and a warning 

 to all trout who should thereafter wish to take advantage of the dis- 

 tress of an eel. J. C. Atkinson. 



Hutton : March 2, 1843. 





Note on the occurrence of the Lesser Forked-beard or Tadpole Fish on the coast of 

 Norfolk. A specimen of the lesser forked-beard (Raniceps trifurcatus), a fish which I 



