300 Wild Life in a Southern County 



miniature harbour. On a warm day almost every such 

 place has its youthful pirate. Notwithstanding the terror 

 of the roach when pursued, they will play about apparently 

 without the slightest fear when the pike is basking in the 

 sun with his back all but on a level with the surface — that 

 is, when the lake is at its ordinary height. It is as if they 

 knew their tyrant was enjoying his siesta. 



These roach literally swarm. At their spawning time 

 that part of the lake the shore of which is stony is posi- 

 tively black with them. For a distance of some hundred 

 and fifty yards the water for seven or eight feet from shore 

 is simply a moving mass of roach. They crowd up against 

 the stones, get underneath them and behind them, enter 

 every little creek and interstice, and are so jammed by 

 their own numbers that they may easily be caught by 

 hand. In their anxiety to secure a place they crush 

 against each other and splash up the water. This impulse 

 only lasts a day or two in its full vigour, when the multi- 

 tude gradually retires into deeper water. 



When thus spawning the roach are preyed on by rats 

 — not the water-rat, but the house or drain rat. There 

 are always a few of these about the lake, and they grow 

 to an enormous size. They destroy the roach in great 

 numbers. I have seen the sand strewn with dead fish 

 opposite and leading up to their holes ; for they catch and 

 kill many more than they can eat, or even have time to 

 carry away. I have shot at these great rascals when they 

 have been swimming fifty yards from shore, and I strongly 

 suspect them of visiting the nests of moorhens and other 

 waterfowl with felonious purposes. They catch fish at any 

 time they see a chance, but are most destructive during 

 the spawning season, because then the roach come within 

 reach. Such rats, too, haunt the ditches and mounds, and 



