Page:British Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes.djvu/113

RUDD AND WHITE BREAM unfavourably with another experience in which I am told I took part as a small boy. Fishing in a lake at Aldenham Abbey, near Watford, about forty years ago, my father, grandfather, and uncle (three rods) had a catch of 2¼ hundred weight of Bream, Rudd, and Tench in the course of 2½ hours! The fish came suddenly on the feed after a heavy thunderstorm, with the remarkable result above recorded. When spawning in April or May

in shallow water, I have often heard Rudd make a pouting noise with the lips as they have shown part of their dappled bodies above the surface of the river. It will fraternise with other fishes, and hybrids between Roach and Rudd have been recorded. The name is probably derived from the colour of the scales.

White Bream.—Blicca bjœrnka (Fig. 51). This somewhat uninteresting and distinctly local species is also known as the Silver Bream. It is much less common than the next fish upon our list, and is a good deal 95