FISHES. 395 
THE TENCH. (Cyprinus tinea,) 
THE Tench, like the carp, is remarkably tenacious of 
life. Its body is thick and short, and seldom exceeds ten 
or eleven inches in length. The eyes are red; the back, 
dorsal, and ventral fins, dusky ; the head, sides, and ab- 
domen of a greenish hue mixed with gold ; and the tail 
very broad. Although the Tench delights in still water, 
in the muddy parts of ponds, where, secure from the vo- 
racious ramblings and dreadful proscriptions of the tyrant 
pike, and from the hook of the angler, it lives nearly mo- 
tionless, covered by the flags, reeds, and weeds that shade 
its place of retirement ; this inactive life has enabled some 
individuals of this species to attain an extraordinary bulk, 
and Tenches have been seen of an astonishing size com- 
paratively with the common length and thickness of the 
fish. We have read, as a well-authenticated fact, that in 
the northern part of England, and in a piece of water, 
which having been long neglected, was filled with pieces 
of timber, stones and rubbish, two hundred Tench, and as 
many perch, of good size, had been found ; and that one 
fish in particular, that seemed to have been shut up in a 
nook, had not only surpassed in size the common ones, 
but had also taken the form of the hole in which it had 
been accidentally confined. The body was in the shape of 
a half- moon, answering in the convexity of its outlines the 
