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FISHES OF BOTTESFORD PARISH, 

 NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE. 



MAX PEACOCK, 

 The Manor, Bottesford. 



My parochial list of fish for Bottesford (Nat. Hist. Div. 2) is as 

 follows. I have just jotted them down as I have found them in 

 my notes. 



Pike. Esox lucius L. In beck below mill, and some clay 

 ponds, which had no ditch or drain running- into or out of 

 them. I believe in the ' pickerel weed,' but not as Walton 

 did. In March or April the pike deposit their spawn 

 amongst aquatic plants. A fragment of weed is carried 

 away by wild fowl with the ova still adhering-. If you 

 startle fowl suddenly by coming- on them, they often may be 

 noticed carrying away a little weed. The new pickerel 

 weed story is a true romance of science. Heaviest weight, 

 12 lbs. 



Salmon. Salmo salar L. In the river Trent; but very 

 rarely they run up the large land or warping drains. Once 

 after a heavy flood subsided one was found in a pigsty, 

 untouched by the pig, in the parish of Amcotts (Div. 1). 

 The greatest weight I am sure of is 42 lbs., but my brother 

 Adrian once saw one in Hull with a label on it saying ' A 

 Trent Salmon, 52^ lbs.' 



Trout. Salmo fario L. Rarely found in the beck above the 

 mill dam, having run up from the Trent I suppose. I never 

 saw them below the dam as far as I can remember. 



Eel. Anguilla vulgaris Flem. Very common in all our 

 waters. The broad-nosed females and sharp-nosed males 

 are both plentiful, but not generally at the same time. It 

 is now proved that the difference is one of sex, not specific. 

 Greatest weight, 5 lbs. The eel was never found while we 

 were young in the Knights Templars' Bath in the Home 

 Field (pasture) at Bottesford Manor. About 1872 my 

 brother and I put a number into it. Since then we have 

 both seen and taken eels there, and observed elvers of the 

 smallest size. As the bath is only drained by a sough, they 

 must either travel down it or come over land for fifty yards. 

 It shows there is an instinct for returning to the same spot 

 even in the young, which do not arrive with the older eels. 



tc*K> October i. U 



