Stray notes on fishing and natural history

ALBERT R. MANN
LIBRARY

New YorK STATE COLLEGES
OF
AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS

AT

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Stray notes on fishing and natural histo

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STRAY NOTES

fishing and Hatural History

BY

CORNWALL SIMEON.

I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout
And here and there a grayling.
Tennyson, Zhe Brook.

Cambridge :
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND 23, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN,
Dondon,
1860.

Cambridge :
PRINTED BY ©. J. CLAY, M.A,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

PREFACE.

Tue following Notes were, with but few
exceptions, written originally without any
view to publication, being merely jottings of
matters from time to time occurring to my
notice, recollections of which I wished to
preserve for my own amusement. When it
was afterwards suggested to me that some
leisure hours might be employed in render-
ing them presentable to others, I thought it
better—while it was certainly easier—to leave
them generally as they had grown up under
my hand, rather than to attempt a more con-
nected arrangement, or even to reduce them
to anything like order. This I trust will be
considered a sufficient excuse for the abrupt
and desultory form in which they are now

offered to the Public.
b

vi PREFACE.

So far as they relate to Fishing, those
connected with practical details are almost
entirely the result of my own experience, and
I may therefore hope that they will prove not
altogether useless to brother-fishermen, while
such as are not exclusively technical may per-
haps possess a more general interest.

With regard to those connected with Na-
tural History I feel that an apology is needed
—especially in this eminently scientific age—
for my presumption in venturing to deal with
the subject so superficially. There is, indeed,
nothing in these Notes which can commend
them to the man of science, they being merely
records of every-day matters, which, though
simple in themselves, have nevertheless yielded
me so much interest and pleasure, that they
may, it is hoped, even second-hand, be capable
of affording some amusement to others.

The combination of the two subjects is
one which may be thought to require some
explanation.

By those who take no interest in Field-
sports, Hunting, Shooting and Fishing will

PREFACE. Vil

be, naturally enough, classed together in the
same category (without any regard to their
bearing on other subjects) as simply repre-
senting the pursuit of so many descriptions
of animals; and the connexion of all three
with the study of Natural History will be
probably considered as equally remote and
indirect.

Now, as to the two former, they may to
a certain extent be right; an attempt to join
either Hunting or Shooting with Natural
History—as Fishing is joined in the following
Notes—might perhaps be fairly open to ex-
ception, as a union of two subjects not of
themselves sufficiently connected.

But Fishing, to my mind, occupies in
that respect an entirely different position
from the other two, the affinity between it
and the study of Natural History being so
close and distinct, as to warrant their being
thus coupled together, I submit, without the
slightest violence to either.

As, however, the distinction to be drawn
between the three sports would probably not

b2

viii PREFACE.

immediately suggest itself to those who take
no interest in them (and I am anxious, as a
Fisherman, to establish it, and to vindicate
the appropriateness of my Title) I will briefly
mention the points of difference which seem
to me thus far to separate them.

Far be it from me in doing this to extol
Fishing at the expense of Hunting or Shoot-
ing; I am much too fond of and grateful to
them to have the least inclination to do SO,
even if it suited my purpose. It is merely
to accident that Fishing is indebted for the
auxiliary charm of this fellowship with Na-
tural History: that Hunting and Shooting
are in great measure destitute of it is not
their fault but their misfortune.

In the first place, exactly as both season, and
the circumstances under which their several
pursuits are conducted tend to frustrate any
attempt on the part of those who hunt or
shoot! to cultivate the study of Natural

1 Jt seems strange that whilst the language affords two
words (“ Angler,” and “ Fisherman”) descriptive of the man
who fishes, we should be driven to paraphrases for want of
corresponding words with regard to Hunting and Shooting.

PREFACE. ix

History; in the same proportion do they not
only lead the Angler up to it, but actually
almost force it upon him.

The former (for whose purposes a very
limited knowledge of Natural History is
generally sufficient, and whose sports are
attended with a degree of noise and bustle,
at once disturbing some objects which might
otherwise attract their notice, and incompa-
tible with a careful examination of others)
take the field when the leaf is withering, and

As to the former, “Hunter” and “Huntsman,” though both
originally bearing that signification, have now lost it, the
word “ Hunter” being (in England) now generally transferred
from the man to the horse, whilst “Huntsman” is exclusively
applied to the person who manages the hounds. As to the
latter (Shooting) we are, if possible, still worse off, for
“Shooter” can scarcely be considered to have been ever
commonly adopted, “Shooting-man” is utterly inadmissible,
and “Shot,” if it ever conveys a similar meaning, certainly
fails to do so without a qualifying adjective.

The French, German, Italian, and Spanish languages have,
it may be remarked, no advantage over us in this respect.
In each there is a word to designate the fisherman (“ Pécheur,”
“ Fischer,’ “ Pescatore,” and “ Pescador”), yet. when they come
to Hunting and Shooting they are obliged to take refuge
in generalities, combining the words “chasser”—“jagen’”—
“cacciare”—“cazar,” &c., with others expressive of the par-
ticular sport.

x PREFACE.

the Swallows are already congregating for
their southern flight; and retire from it
(with rare exceptions) before they have again
heralded the spring, or the earth has re-
awakened from her long winter-sleep. Such,
it must be admitted, is not the season, nor
are such the circumstances which can in
any great degree tend to promote a love for,
or conduce to, the study of Natural History.

But how different is the Angler’s case!
Not only is an accurate knowledge of some
branches of Natural History essential to him
who would excel in his art, but all the cir-
cumstances attending it—the genial character
of the season which peculiarly calls him forth
—the beauty of the scenery into which he is
naturally led, with all its sweet accompani-
ments,

“Rivers to whose shallow falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals ;’—

the soothing and thought-awakening influence

of the water itself, ‘‘ Nature’s store-house, in

which she locks up her wonders!”—the num-
2 Tzaak Walton.

PREFACE. xi

berless and varied forms of animal and vege-
table life, which can hardly fail to arrest his
attention and excite his interest, many of them,
by reason of the silence and quiet necessary
for his sport, being seen to especial advantage ;
all these things combine not only to present
the works of Nature before him in their most
attractive form, but at the same time pecu-
liarly dispose his mind to meditate on the
impressions they can scarcely fail to make on
it. The Book of Nature is in fact opened
before his eyes—nay, obtruded on his notice
—written in such distinct and inviting cha-
racters, that he must indeed be blind of eye,
‘and dull of apprehension, if he do not, to
some extent at any rate, attain to a know-
ledge and a love of her language.

It is scarcely to be wondered then, that,
springing from all these associations, there
should insensibly arise in the Angler’s mind
a cordial sympathy with and appreciation of
the delights and wonders of Nature, such as
I am persuaded no other class of men (taken
collectively) possesses,

xi PREFACE.

The accuracy of these conclusions, as be-
tween Hunting, Shooting, and Fishing, may
be, perhaps not unfairly, tested by comparing
the standard works on each, and thus forming
an estimate of the regard in which Nature
and the study of Natural History are held
by their respective votaries.

To go through the whole list would be
a tedious and a needless process; but let us
take the best known work on each subject—
say Beckford’s Thoughts on Hunting, Hawker’s
Instructions to Young Sportsmen, and Wal-
ton’s Complete Angler. Now what is there in
“Beckford” but Hunting,—what in “Hawker”
but Shooting? But what a change is there
when we come to dear old Izaak! How keen
and pure is his appreciation and enjoyment of
Nature for Nature’s self. There is scarcely
a page in his whole book which does not
breathe forth his earnest and devoted love
for her. Do not his descriptions almost lead
away his readers in spite of themselves from
the avowed subject of his book, and incite
them to become Anglers more for the sake

PREFACE. xiii

of the accessories which he paints so gra-
phically and invitingly—his “honey-suckle
hedges”—his “airy creatures'”—his “silver
streams”—than for the actual fishing ? I verily
believe he has done as much to promote a
genial and healthy love of Nature as any man
who ever lived.

That Fishing has, by thus leading up to
the study of Natural History, acquired a pre-
scriptive right to be associated with it—as I
have taken leave to do in the subsequent
Notes—is a question which no angler would
probably dispute.

" Yarrell says, that few have expressed their admiration
of the Nightingale’s song in more fervent or more natural
terms than “honest Izaak Walton, who loved birds almost as
well as he loved fish,”—quoting from him that graphic eulogy
of the bird :—“ But the Nightingale, another of my airy crea-
tures, breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instru-
mental throat, that it might make mankind to think that mi-
racles are not ceased. He that at midnight, when the very
labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have very often,
the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and fall-
ing, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might well be
lifted up above earth, and say, ‘Lord, what music hast thou
provided for the saints in heaven, when thou affordest bad
men such music upon earth””—British Birds, 1. 319.

CONTENTS.
Part I.—FISHING.

CHAPTER I.

PAGH
Directions for Spinning—Rod—for Trout—for Jack—

Covering for Button—Rings—Line—Trace—Shot—
Flights of Hooks—Baiting—Gimp—Treble Gut—
Single ditto— Care as to Tackle —“ Hand-coiling”
Line—A couple of hints—Colour of Landing-handle 1

CHAPTER II.

Spin slowly—Strike Jack sharply—<Artificial baits for
Jack—Jack caught with dead bait not in motion—
“ Kill-devils’—on the Wandle—in Devonshire—in
Salt-water — Spoon-baits — India-rubber balls for
floating off live-bait — Double live-bait tackle—
“Gag” and “ Executioner” for Jack—Live-ground-
baiting .. ‘ 3 ‘ z é 3 5 . 18

CHAPTER III.

How to catch Carp—Tame Carp—Carp basking—Grass-
hopper bait—Carp, Eels, and Aischylus—Fish-ponds
near Brussels—Great Carp caught in them—General
management of fish there—Growth of fish promoted
by change of water—Effect on Jack—on Roach—
Noises made by Carp at night—Spawning of Carp—
Their spawn devoured by Water-birds and fish—
Dace caught with Spinning-bait—Carp with live
Minnow—Eel with fly—Perch with fly . . . 33

CHAPTER IV.

In selection of Flies, colour, not form—Old rule, “ Light,
fly for darkness,” &c. rather to be reversed—
Fastening for Casting-line—Ditto for Bob-flies—
Make-shift Gaff—Cut-and-thrust Rod-spear—Simple
Clearing-line—Fastening for loose Reel—Fish
slowly with fly—Straight line—Hair casting-lines—
Tailing fly with “Gentle”—Fishing near Geneva—
Versoix— Eau de Lyon—Lines on Versoix—In

xx CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.
PAGE

Rarer Birds visilors to the Isle of Wight—Spoon-bill—
Red-necked Phalarope—Bittern—Gannet— White-
fronted (Laughing) Goose—Black Redstart—Com-
mon Ditto—Hoopoe—Snow Bunting—Cirl Bunting
—Brambling — Merlin— Hobby—Grossbeak— Wry-
neck—-Grasshopper Warbler—Stone Curlew—Dot-
terel—Ring Dotterel and Ox-bird—Grey Plover—
Golden Plover—Protest against killing rare Birds . 203

CHAPTER VI.

Tameness of Animals on Sundays— Anecdotes as to
Horses—Spaniel—Pomeranian Dog—Note of Pee-
wit— Grass scarified by Rooks—Bareness at base of
Rook’s bill—Infants—Young Asses—Young Ele-
phants—Lofty flight of Moorhens at night—Land-
rail—Quail—Woodcock—carries young from place
to place—Snipe—fquirrels—Nuts and Nutshells on
Down—Star on Hare’s forehead—Sparrows congre-
gating in hard weather. i : ‘ : . 212

CHAPTER VII.

Singular effect of Storm—Great discharge of Sap
from Trees—Growth of Cedar of Lebanon—of other
Trecs—Changes in Pond-weeds—Soil collected at
mouths of Worm-holes—Maggots from Sea-weed—
Disease among Partridges—Boy and Wasps—
Midges—Birds on Scotch Sea-lochs—Herons in
Loch Duich—Mortality among Sea-birds—Skeletons
of Weasels in Ricks—Rats . i 3 ; . 224

CHAPTER VIII.

Determination of Sparrow-hawk—Boldness and voracity
of Stoat—Jays—bait for—Flocks of Magpies—Jays,
Magpies,’ &c. subject to fits—Raven—Cats—Barn-
owls—Kestrels—Foxes . . . . . .« 241

NOTE.
Pike choked by living Carp. 3 i F i . 256

PART I.

fishing.

FISHING.

CHAPTER I.

Directions for Spinning—Rod—for Trout—for Jack—Co-
vering for Button—Rings—Line—Trace—Shot—Flights
of Hooks—Baiting—Gimp—Treble Gut—Single ditto—
Care as to Tackle—‘ Hand-coiling” Line—A couple of
hints—Colour of Landing-handle.

I HAVE experienced so much difficulty in de-

termining what is (to my mind) the best
form of tackle for spinning, that I make no apo-
logy for submitting to those who are fond of
this very pleasant mode of fishing the results at
which I have arrived. And I do so without
hesitation : not that I have the slightest intention
of asserting my style of tackle to be perfect, (for
most old fishermen have their own peculiar wrin-
kles, many of which might probably be adopted
with advantage, in addition to, if not in lieu of,
my own,) but simply because, having in vain con-
sulted the ordinary books on fishing for the
information I required, I should have been very

B2

4 DIRECTIONS FOR SPINNING—ROD. [PART I.

glad some years ago to obtain that which I now
offer as the result of actual experience; and, be-
lieving that the want has not yet been supplied,
I think it not improbable that others may still
be in the same case.

Your spinning-rod (for Trout) should not be
shorter than twelve and a half, nor exceed sixteen
feet in length. For boat-work, and indeed when
fishing from the shore, if the water is sufficiently
deep along the side next you, and the bank clear,
one of about thirteen feet will generally be found
to answer every purpose: but for use off weirs,
or. from the bank where the water runs shallow
near the shore, or is grown up with reeds, it is
generally advisable to have a somewhat longer
one.

Cane is the best material for the whole of the
rod except the top, for which, in my opinion,
nothing beats simple hickory. A wood called
“green-heart”’ has been a good deal praised lately
as a material for tops, but I fancy it is, though
sometimes very tough and elastic, apt to run
faulty, and therefore not always to be depended
on. One great advantage of cane is its lightness,
a quality which, having due regard to strength,
can hardly be too much insisted on; for a con-

CH.1.] SPINNING-ROD—FOR TROUT—FOR JACK. 5

tinuous day’s spinning, when you are out of prac-
tice, is back-aching work even with a light rod,
much more so with a heavy one.

A trout-spinning-rod can generally be con-
verted into one applicable to Jack, by substituting
a short stiff top for the longer one, or (if extra-
heavy baits be used) for the two upper joints
required for lighter and finer work. Where how-
ever very heavy baits are exclusively employed—
the fashion in some places, though I by no means
recommend it for general adoption—it will be found
a matter of economy to have a stouter rod built
for the purpose, as the undue strain to which a
light rod would be thus subjected would soon ruin
it, however good it might be.

A rod if well made, and of good materials, will
with care last a long while. I myself have a cane
one which was made for me about seventeen years
ago by Bowness (late Chevalier) of Bell Yard,
(whose materials and workmanship I have always
found extremely good,) which has been in pretty
constant use ever since, and—barring a joint which
was accidentally broken, and has been renewed—
seems scarcely to have suffered from the work it
has done,

Over the button at the bottom of the rod

6 COVERING FOR BUTTON—ROD-RINGS. [PART 1.

should be strained and fastened a piece of wash-
leather,—or, what is perhaps better, thin India-
rubber—which will be found of great service and
comfort in preventing the rod from slipping, as it
is otherwise sometimes inclined to do, when you
are throwing under difficulties.

By all means have your rod-rings sufficiently
large. They should of course be fixed upright.
Very good ones may be made of thick brass wire,
hammered sufficiently to be quite hard without
being brittle. That next the hand should be
formed by giving the wire a complete turn, and
bringing the ends down from above over the rod,
thus (Fig. 1): leading them afterwards a little way

along the butt, to admit of their being whipped
on. The line will be thus prevented from getting
hung up round the ring, which it will otherwise

CH. 1] TOP-RING—LINE. 7

infallibly do sometimes. For that at the end of the
rod I think there is nothing so good as a hollow-
edged ring, of brass or German-silver, enclosed
in strong brass wire, as shewn in Fig. 2:—the
principal advantage of this plan is,
that as the ring can be turned round
in the wire, there is no fear of the
line wearing a furrow in it, as will
be found to be the case after a time,
when it is a fixture. Some time ago
I mentioned this kind of ring to a
London fishing-tackle maker, when
he said he thought he could get the
thing nicely done in agate. Rather fancying the
material, from the idea that the line would run
pleasantly through it, I requested him to have

one made for meas asample. He accordingly did
so, when, on inquiring the price, which I ought
to have done before, I found it was five shillings!
Those of German-silver cost about sixpence a-piece.

It is extremely difficult to get a really good
spinning-line for Trout; yet at the same time
nothing is more essential to the comfort and the
success of the fisherman. The three things which
constitute a good line are fineness, softness, and
absence of any disposition to “kink.”

8 LINE—COLOUR—-MATERIAL—LENGTH. [PART I.

Colour should also be looked to, but it is
a minor consideration. Of all faults that of
“kinking” is the most fatal to sport and temper.
Ifa kinking line does not make a man swear, I
don’t know what will. The best lines are made of
silk, or mostly silk. As good as any that I have
seen were made by Mr Edward Lees, Golden Sal-
mon, Nottingham, price a penny a yard. The line
should be dressed occasionally, and that, not by
being merely dipped, as London tackle-makers are
apt to do it, but by having the composition well
rubbed in with the hand. The Thames fishermen,
who spin much, are good hands at this. I should
recommend any one ordering a new spinning-line,
not to have it shorter than a hundred yards. It is
not often that so much is required, but it may be
occasionally found extremely useful to have a
reserve on the reel, as for instance in the case of
hooking a large fish from a weir, when you may
have to go a long way round before you can bring
him down stream to land him; or again your
hooks may get foul under the camp-sheeting, when
you may save your tackle by going round and get-
ting a pull on it from the opposite direction. At
the close, or more frequently at the commence-
ment of a season, you will find it necessary, if your

CH. I.] TRACE—LENGTH FOR--SERVICEABLE TYPE OF. 9

line has done much work, to sacrifice some yards of
it, which can be more easily spared from a long
than a shorter line. When a favourite line has
thus become reduced to about sixty or seventy
yards, I generally lengthen the end next the reel
by splicing and carefully whipping on an additional
piece, by which means I still have my old line to
throw with, and plenty to fall back upon in case of
need. You may thus utilize an old line until the
knot comes within the cast. With great care,
indeed, the splice may be so nicely made as
scarcely to interrupt the passage of the line
through the rings, even in casting.

As a length for the trace I have generally
found from six to seven feet quite sufficient. A
longer one is apt to get in the way; a shorter one
brings the line too near the hooks. As to its form,
I have come to the conclusion that the following
is, for general purposes, as serviceable and conve-
nient a type (admitting, of course, of variation
according to circumstances) as any that can be
adopted. Above the shot have three lengths of
gut (Fig.3, A), with a swivel between each, as also
a swivel and small loop between the lowermost
one and the shot. These should be perforate, and
made up, separate from the traces, in flights of (say)

10

TRACE FOR SPINNING.

Fig. 3.

[PART. I.

CH. I.] FORMATION OF TRACE—SHOT. 11

fifteen, twelve, ten, seven, and five respectively
(Fig. 3, B), the centremost shots in each flight
being larger than the others, which should gra-
dually diminish in size on either side of them.
Of these the largest should not be larger than
small peas, nor the smallest run below about No. 2;
they being thus arranged and sized in order to get
the required weight with the least possible dis-
turbance to the water. They should be threaded
on treble gut, (not gimp, which is apt to wear,) and
a small loop should be left on each side of the
flight, so that it can be exchanged at pleasure for
a heavier or lighter one, according to the size of
the bait, and the state of the water. When, in
heavy water, it is necessary to fish with more than
about fifteen shot, it is better to have them in two
flights separated by about two lengths of gut, to
which they should in that case (an exceptional
one) be permanently affixed without loops. Below
the shot there should be again three lengths of gut
(Fig. 3, C), besides the one next the hooks. Between
the two upper of these lengths there should be a
swivel, and a swivel and loop above and below the
three,—the upper loop just sufficiently’ large to
pass the shot through easily,—the lower one large
enough to admit of the bait and hooks being

12 SWIVELS—FLIGHTS OF HOOKS—BAITING. [PART I.

passed through it. The number of swivels used
will thus amount to six. A smaller number will
doubtless often answer the purpose, but that I
have mentioned will ensure the bait spinning well,
if properly put on, and save your gut from be-
coming at all twisted. In trailing, when the bait
is kept spinning a long while continuously, and
the line is not, by being frequently taken out of
the water, (as in the ordinary mode of spinning,)
relieved from any undue twist to which it may be
subjected, it is almost essential to have as many.

As to flights of hooks, I am content with four,
or three, trebles (according to the size of the bait),
and a lip-hook, which latter should be tied upon a
minute loop, so small as only just to enable it to
run up and down the gut. In baiting, it is kept in
its place by taking a couple of turns round it with
the gut. A single hook, reversed, just below the
penultimate treble, tends to keep the tail of the
bait in its place. A large bait should always be
secured to the hooks by a piece of thread tied
round it, just behind, or over, the dorsal fin;
otherwise it will soon be dragged from them by
its own weight.

A very slight crook in the tail is sufficient to
make a bait spin well, especially a large one. In

CH. I.] AS TO BAITING—GIMP. 13

fact it should be less and less crooked in propor-
tion to its size. If a bait will not spin well, or
“wabbles,” two to one it is too much crooked. A
double crook or bend in a bait is also absolutely
fatal to its spinning properly.

A Bleak should be put on so as to form one
continuous curve from head to tail. In all others
the tail alone should be curved, and the rest of
the body left perfectly straight. This is the the-
ory of Edward Andrews, a fisherman at Maiden-
head, who is certainly the greatest “artiste” in
putting on a bait that I ever saw.

Further written instructions on the subject I
will not attempt, for the most elaborate would fail
to teach the knack of putting on a bait properly,
it being one which can be acquired only by prac-
tice, and which, perhaps as much as any connected
with the gentle art, requires nicety and judgment
in its execution.

When fishing water which contains Jack as
well as Trout, you should always have by you a
few flights of somewhat larger hooks tied on gimp.
It is not at all an unfrequent occurrence to lose
a set of gut tackle to a Jack, and to recover it by
catching him next throw with a gimp set. Indeed,
if the gimp be fine, I have generally found that

14 GUT—CARE AS TO TACKLE. [PART I.

it scarcely alarms Trout more than gut, if it do
so at all. The very fine gimp should however be
always tested before it is used, as the silk within
it is apt to be faulty and give. The same remark
indeed applies to all kinds of tackle, be it line,
single gut, treble gut, or gimp. Remember that
when a break occurs it is generally to the best
fish. Treble gut is scarcely to be more relied
on than single ; the fact being that all the weak
bad gut is worked up, and looks well enough so.
As an instance,—whilst spinning on the Garry,
I got my hooks fast the other side of a deep black
pool, and, not caring to swim for it, deliberately
pulled till something broke. My trace being of
single gut, the shot fastened on treble gut, and
having gimp next the hooks, I was curious to see
which the something would be. It was the treble
gut, possibly worn by the rubbing of the shot.

In this, as in all other kinds of fishing, it is
impossible, consistently with the requisite amount
of strength, to have your tackle too fine: perhaps
in no other is it so essential to have the two
qualities combined. There are few tackle-makers
in London who know much about this branch of
their art. Gould, of 268, Oxford-street, (whom I
have also pleasure in recommending as a careful

CH. 1.] ““ HAND-COILING” LINE. 15

and painstaking workman,) has probably a more
practical knowledge of it than most, being a good
fisherman himself: but spinning-tackle is of all
the most difficult to get properly made, and no
one, who does not make his own, can be too par-
ticular in seeing that his instructions are exactly
carried out.

There is a plan for managing the line whilst
spinning, at which the Thames fishermen are great
adepts, and which cannot be too highly com-
mended, by which, instead of being dropped at the
feet in the usual way, as it is drawn in after a cast,
it is collected in the hollow of the hand, whence
it again runs out freely at the next. It is effected
by first taking the line between the middle of the
fore-finger and the thumb, then turning the hand
over, and catching the line above it with the little
finger, round which it is for the instant looped,
and then turning the hand again, so as to bring
the fore-finger and thumb again to bear upon the
line. This process is somewhat difficult to de-
scribe, and still more so to execute rapidly, as is
necessary where there is not much stream, or the
water is shallow. The accomplishment is however
a very valuable one, enabling the proficient, as it
does, to fish comfortably under many circum-

16 HINTS—COLOUR OF LANDING-HANDLE. [PART I.

stances when he could not otherwise do 80; as, for
instance, in a high wind, in long grass, or off a
weir, as well as to carry his line from one part of
the water to another in readiness for a cast, in-
stead of dragging it trailing behind him, at the
risk of it’s getting hung up, and collecting all man-
ner of rubbish in it’s course.

With regard to the general management of the
rod and line, when spinning, I will only give two
hints, which may be useful. AJl the rest must be
learnt by practice. One is to avoid, as much as
possible, in the act of throwing, anything ap-
proaching to a jerk; the other, after throwing, to
let the point of the rod follow the batt until it
reaches the water.

The Landing-handle, whether Gaff or Net be
used, should always be of a dark colour, if not
black. Should the net also be well tanned, it will
not only last longer, but be more serviceable while
it lasts. It is quite curious how much more rea-
dily fish are alarmed by a light-coloured landing-
stick (cane for instance) than a dark one. Many
minutes, which can be ill-spared when the fish are
in the humour for taking, are often saved by the
use of the latter. A Gaff affixed to a small dark-
coloured handle will, if skilfully applied, often

CH. I.] COLOUR OF LANDING-HANDLE. 17

whip out a fish, before he is aware of his danger :
whereas, should he have been once roused to a
sense of it, by being brought face to face with a
light-coloured one, and particularly if an unsuc-
cessful attempt have been made to land him with
it, he often turns unpleasantly fractious, and re-
quires a good deal of persuasion, before he can be
again prevailed on to come within reach. And
it must not be forgotten, that those struggles of
his with a short line are infinitely more dangerous
than any that he can make with a long one.

CHAPTER II.

Spin slowly—Strike Jack sharply—Artificial baits for Jack
—Jack caught with dead bait not in motion—* Kill-devils”
—on the Wandle—in Devonshire—in Salt-water—Spoon-
baits—India-rubber balls for floating off live-bait—Double
live-bait tackle—“Gag” and “Executioner” for Jack—
Live-ground-batting.

F you have fine tackle and a good bait, I am
persuaded you can scarcely spin too slowly.
In working over a shallow you will find, that by
raising the point of your rod you will generally be
enabled to keep the bait off the bottom, without
in any great degree, and, if you have not much
line out, without at all accelerating the speed at
which you are fishing. When spinning with an
artificial bait the pace may perhaps be greater, as
otherwise the fish may detect the imposition. As
to slow spinning, the following circumstance would
tend to prove my theory :—I was spinning, from a
punt, down the reach of the Thames just above
Maidenhead, where the stream is not particularly
rapid, and not more than four or five feet deep,

CH. I1.] SPIN SLOWLY—STRIKE JACK SHARPLY. 19

(and which had, by the bye, been fished over
and over again the same season, and several
times the same day,) when my line, which was a
new one, becoming kinked, I ceased pulling in
altogether whilst clearing it, at the same time
raising my rod almost to the perpendicular, to
keep my bait off the bottom. Having been in this
position some little time—for the kink was rather
a complicated one—I felt a tug, but concluded it
must have been a weed floating down stream, and
took no notice of it. It was, however, almost im-
mediately repeated, when I instinctively struck,
and found to my surprise that it proceeded from
“no waiter, but a Knight Templar,’ a good Trout
of over three pounds, which I got safely into the
landing-net.

You will not often err, when spinning, in
striking a Jack too sharply. He gets the bait
across his mouth with his big teeth well into it,
and nothing short of a good tug will move it so
as to get the hooks into him. And the bigger
the fish, the more this applies. You feel the fish
come at you. You striké him lightly, as you
would a Trout,—feel he is on, and think all is
right. However, just as you begin to think of
playing him, and draw him towards you, you have

C2

20 ARTIFICIAL BAIT FOR JACK. [PART I.

the mortification of finding that. he has parted
company, and of seeing the wake, like that of
a screw-steamer, which the fish, perhaps a beast
of fifteen or twenty pounds, has left as a parting
token of his size. Pull in your bait and examine
it, You will see down the sides of it great scores
looking more as if they had been made by the
teeth of a leister-spear than of a fish, but all of
them, if you notice, simply across the bait. That
has been just the cause of your failure. The Jack
took it in all earnestness, and held it tight just
as long as it suited him, without taking any notice
of the gentle touch you favoured him with. Nay,
further, being rather hungry, and finding your
bait fresh and juicy, just what he fancied, he was
by no means inclined to give it up, and only did
so at last when he found himself mysteriously
drawn along with it in a manner which led him
to apprehend danger.

Jack will take an artificial bait much more
readily in some water than others. For instance,
they may be easily caught with it in the Avon;
whilst in the Stour, which meets it just below
Christchurch, it is of little use to fish with any-
thing but the natural bait. This, no doubt, depends.
mainly on the comparative supply of small fish.

CH. I1.] MOTIONLESS DEAD-BAIT TAKEN. 21

They are, however, generally not very parti-
cular as to the kind of bait you have on, and
will, when they are hungry, take almost anything
‘which is in motion. Last year, whilst I was trail-
ing up the straight reach below Maidenhead, a
Jack came at the length of shot on my line, at
least three feet above the bait, and cut the gut
there, leaving distinct marks of his teeth in one
or two other places. This was perhaps more of
a “sell” for me than for him, I having guarded
myself, as I thought, against any such contingency
by gimp next the hooks.

Although in general Jack decidedly prefer a
bait when in motion, yet they will now and then
take a dead one lying at the bottom. I have my-
self once or twice caught them in this way when
I have accidentally put down my rod, leaving my
bait in the water. On one occasion I remember
taking up one on a night-line baited with a worm.
Ordinarily I think that only small Jack will be
tempted by such a bait, but that such is not in-
variably the case, the following anecdote will
prove:—An acquaintance of mine had been fish-
ing, with some friends, a large pond in the
neighbourhood of the New Forest. They halted
in the afternoon for luncheon, not having had very

22 ARTIFICIAL SPINNING-BAITS. [PART I.

good sport, when he, wishing to keep his tackle
out of the way, and believing the bottom to be
clear, threw out his bait (a roach or gudgeon) to
some distance from the boat. Luncheon occupied
them about three quarters of an hour, at the end
of which having taken up his rod, he found his
hooks, as he imagined, foul of the bottom. He
gave two or three pulls to endeavour to clear it,
when he discovered, to his great surprise, that
he had got hold of something alive; and the
next instant out went his line with evidently
a “regular snorter’’ at the end of it. It was not
without considerable difficulty that he succeeded
in landing this self-invited guest, when he found
him to be a Jack of over twenty-eight pounds, which
he has now preserved. I have not yet seen him,
but am told he is a singularly handsome fish, so
that, if condition be a test, it is probable he was
not induced to take the bait merely from the pres-
sure of hunger.

I have fished with artificial spinning-baits (kill-
devils) of nearly every kind and shape, and caught
fish with all, I believe, without exception. Indeed,
almost anything at all bright, that will spin, with
a garnish of hooks, will, where “baits” are scarce,
catch Trout or Jack,—and (I believe I may add)

CH. II.] KILL-DEVILS FOR TROUT, 23

Perch. Of the kill-devils with which I have fished,
I have caught most Trout with a small brass
one, which I got at Bala, pretending no resem-
blance to a fish, but consisting of a short round
body and two large flanges—in size as well as
shape like that represented in Fig. 4. The next

best, which I have principally used when the water
contained Jack as well as Trout, is made of Gutta-
percha, the size of (and I believe intended to
represent) a small Roach, with pectoral flanges,
and the tail rounded off; the tail, as the thing
is commonly sold, being only in the way. This
I have found very useful in some of the Scotch
lochs, when short of natural bait.

24 HALF-AN-HOUR WITH THE KILL-DEVIL. [PART I.

The first I ever tried was one of the old
mother-o’-pearl sort, spinning from the tail; the
water being the Wandle at Hackbridge near
Carshalton. It was a brilliant morning in June
when I turned out between four and five, and
the mowers were just setting to work as I crossed
the meadows. I began with the fly, but it
was of no use. The water was like glass, not
a cloud over the sun, and the weather-cock
pointing to the North-east, though not a breath
of wind was perceptible. Finding that I could
not get a rise, I at length, from curiosity, put
on the kill-devil, which I happened to have in
my book, to see how it would work. I at first
threw into a small pool, an off-shoot from the
river, just above the mill, where I should not
have expected to find any fish at all. Instantly
however I had one, a little chap of about a third
of a pound. I put him back, and, not having had
time to see the spinning of the bait, cast again
into the same place. Again the result was the
same, and again a third time, the fish being about
the same size and duly returned. I then went to
the river, and never before or since did I see any-
thing like the effect of that bait. It seemed per-
fectly irresistible. No matter how I threw, (and I

CH. 1I.] A TEN-POUNDER ALL BUT CAUGHT. 25

had only a fly-rod,)—no matter whether they saw
me or not—they came at it as a hawk comes ata
partridge and would not be denied. I put back
again all the smaller ones, but, if my memory
serves me, I kept two brace, of from about one to
two and a half pounds. I was then told, after
having been at it about half an hour, or less, that
nothing but the fly was allowed, and of course left
off at once.

Even in that short time however, I only just
failed to rob the water of (in all probability) its
principal ornament. While passing to the river be-
low the mill from the pool where I first made trial
of my bait, I dropped it into a deep dark pool fed
by a back-water which poured down into it with a
powerful stream through a slate-lined water-course
set at a very considerable angle, and then drew
it slowly up this water-course, just to see how it
would spin in the rapid current, never dreaming of
@ fish. Suddenly, however, to my utter astonish-
ment, out of the pool came after it with a rush,
about ten feet up the water-course, an enormous
brute, with a head like a bull. He got within an
inch or two of the bait, when, either from seeing
me so close to him, or from inability to stem the
stream, he fell back, and of course I saw no more

26 KILL-DEVIL FOR SMALL TROUT. [PARTI.

of him. Some time afterwards, happening to meet
the owner of the water, I took the opportunity of
apologizing to him for having unintentionally vio-
lated his rule restricting persons fishing it to the
use of the fly, and incidentally mentioned the
large Trout which I had thus seen and missed,
when he told me that he knew him well, and that
his weight was at least ten pounds, which was
exactly what I had put him at.

Even in streams where the Trout run small the
kill-devil is sometimes very effective.

I was fishing down the (Devonshire) Avon,
between Cot and Gara Bridge, on the 16th of
August, 1852, when the river was recovering from
a flood, and apparently in good order for the fly.
A determined rain from the South-west however
prevented the fish from rising, and my basket
shewed no more than about a dozen and a half
Trout, all of them, with one or two exceptions,
being mere sprats. Just before leaving off how-
ever, I met a young fellow, an attorney from
Totnes, who had, with a kill-devil (one of those
constructed to run up the line when a fish is
struck) been having great sport, and half filled his
basket with fish averaging near a quarter of a
pound (large for Devonshire). He had one or two

CH. I1.] TIN-FOIL AS BAIT FOR SEA-FISH. 27

runs in every “stickle,’ and it seemed quite irre-
sistible.

Two years ago, I put up a large coarse mother-
o’-pearl kill-devil (which Mr Gould had given me
to see what I could make of it) to trail with when
pulling up the (salt water) Loch Creran in Argyle-
shire. To my surprise the first thing I caught
with it was a pretty good Sea Trout, which was
succeeded by two or three Lythe (Pollack), Cod-
lings, &c. In salt-water lochs a piece of an old
white glove sewn over a flight of hooks, of course
leaving the hooks exposed, will be found to answer
very well. It should be sewn in a round shape,
so as to resemble a sand-eel as much as possible.
If a piece of silver tinsel be twisted round it, so
much the better. If sewn on one of the Archime-
dean bait tackles (those intended to be thrust into
the mouths of baits, leaving the flanges exposed),
it would, I doubt not, be more killing, as the
flanges would give a little glitter to the bait, and
the spinning of it would prevent the hooks from
being so plainly seen. All artificial baits with
pectoral flanges are, I think, preferable to
those which spin from the tail. A piece of com-
mon tin-foil, such as tobacco is wrapped in,
simply twisted round the hook, with a small

28 SPOON-BAITS [PART I,

piece left hanging loosely from it, will be found,
when kept in motion, very attractive to Lythe,
Cuddies, &e.

The spoon-baits are, I believe, very good for
Jack,—and Trout may also be killed with them. I
have not, however, used them much myself, having
rather a preference for the other descriptions that
I have mentioned. A friend of mine tells me he
has found that a drop or two of red sealing-wax
dropped inside the spoons, makes them more
enticing. It was, I think, M*Gowan, the fishing-
tackle maker in Bruton-street, (in whom, by the
way, from his practical knowledge of the subject,
confidence may be placed in matters connected
with Salmon and Sea Trout fishing,) who told me
he knew of a case where a gentleman’s valet in
Scotland, one day when all the gentlemen of the
party had gone down to the river for Salmon, him-
self went out on a lake adjoining the house, trail-
ing a spoon-bait, and surprised them, on their
return with empty creels, by exhibiting two clean
Salmon which he had caught there with it.

It will be well worth the while of any one who
may be going on a fishing excursion where there
are pieces of water stocked with Jack, to put up,
with his fishing-tackle, two or three of the India-

CH. II.] INDIA-RUBBER BALLS FOR LIVE-BAIT. 29

rubber balls which are capable of being inflated
at pleasure, and are sold as toys. They take up
no room, and answer very well for floating off live-
baits with. If there is a boat on the water, they
need not be fastened to the shore. If not, it will
be generally necessary to have them made fast to
a line, which should be kept from sinking by a few
small corks attached to it at intervals. The balls
should be more or less inflated in proportion as
there is less or more wind. By shifting the posi-
tion of the end of the line on shore, the greater
part of the water can thus in most cases be closely
fished.

Jack will often, if not hungry, take a live bait
apparently for mere wantonness, and, after holding
it for a short time, leave it again. When this is
the case it “sells” them considerably to fish with
a double set of tackle, each consisting of a bait-
hook and another rather larger one tied just below
it back to back, the two sets being on different
pieces of gimp meeting the line about eight or ten
inches from the bait at a swivel, just above which
the lead may be fastened. One of the bait-hooks
should be run through the skin a little before the
tail, the other just before the dorsal fin, so that
the loose hooks stand out on opposite sides. This

30 DOUBLE LIVE-BAIT TACKLE FOR JACK. [PART I.

way of fishing makes you quite free of the Jack’s

fancies, as you can strike at once, the double set
Fig. 5.

Double live-bait tackle.
of hooks rendering you “in wtrumque paratum.”
The cuts in Fg. 5 will exemplify my meaning, —

CH. II.] “GAG AND EXECUTIONER” FOR JACK. 31

A being the tackle without a bait on; B the same
ready for action.

A Gag for keeping open the mouths of Jack
whilst you are disengaging the hooks will be
found very convenient, and often save both your
time and fingers. Such a one as that represented
in Fig. 6 has the double merit of being very simple
and answering perfectly. It should be made of
thickish hoop-iron, and about nine or ten inches
long. In using it the lower (moveable) jaw should

Fig. 6.

Gag for Jack.
be forced down with the point farthest from the
handle. If made tolerably heavy at the lower end,
it also answers very well as an “executioner,”
wherewith to administer the cowp de grace.

32 “ LIVE-GROUND-BAITING.” (PART I..

Whilst on the. subject of dodges, I may men-
tion the following simple and ingenious one for
“live-ground-baiting,” (if it may be so called,) which
has been lately hit upon by a friend of mine, and
practised by him with considerable success, several
good Thames Trout, which had been proof against
every other temptation, having at length yielded
to it.

Above the bait-hook, which is simply passed
through the upper lip of a live Bleak, he fastens
one or two bob-flies tied on straight pieces of wire,
or hooks minus the bends.

The live bait is then quietly dropped in as
near the Trout’s haunt as it can be ascertained,
and the bob-flies kept in motion on the surface of
the water. These naturally attract the neighbour-
ing Bleak, the old Trout all the time watching
their movements from his hiding-place. At length,

when a number have been thus collected, he can
stand it no longer, and makes a dash at them.

Away they go instanter, none remaining but the
unfortunate individual on the hook, who is forth-
with bolted. The presence of the free Bleak
would probably be sufficient to disarm the sus-
picions of the most wily Trout.

CHAPTER III.

How to catch Carp—Tame Carp—Carp basking—Grass-
hopper bait—Carp, Eels,and Zschylus— Fish-ponds near
Brussels—Great Carp caught in them—General manage-
ment of fish there—Growth of fish promoted by change
of water—Effect on Jack—on Roach—Noises made by
Carp at night—Spawning of Carp—Their spawn de-
voured by waterbirds and fish—Dace caught with
Spinning-bait—Carp with live Minnow—Eel with Fly—
Perch with Fly.

ANY people have Carp in their ponds, which,
they say, are so shy that it is of no use to
fish for them. Should you hear of such a case,
and, having nothing better to do, like to volun-
teer your services, I think that, (should they be ac-
cepted,) you will, by adopting the following plan,
meet with sufficient sport to induce you to repeat
your visit.
The tackle required will be simply a long rod,

a reel containing not less than fifty yards of

fineish line (though less will do if the fish run

small), a fine but sound casting-line, nearly as long
as the rod, hooks of about No. 9 size, tied on
gut to match, and a small unpretending-looking

float; besides a good lump of the crumb of new
D

34 HOW TO CATCH CARP. [PART I.

bread, and a landing-net. Having looked out a
quiet place in the pond, selecting rather shallow
than detp water (particularly if the weather be
at all hot, when Carp always affect the shallows),
and, if the pond be a large one, and cattle have
access to it, not very far from that part where
they come to drink, gently stick into the ground
near the edge a small forked stick (the fork
about two feet above ground), to rest the rod
upon and keep it clear of the water, and also a
few small bushes to screen you from the Carp.
Then, after quietly plumbing the depth of the
water you intend to fish, cover the whole of
your hook, shank and all, with a plummet-shaped
piece of bread, kneaded into paste (remembering
that, if the slightest part of the hook is visible,
not a Carp will touch it), and, setting the float
two or three feet further from the bait than the
depth of water, throw it well out, drawing in
afterwards all the slack of your line. You may
then lay down your rod, resting the top upon
the forked stick, and disposing the line so that
it will run out freely; and, sitting down, while
you smoke your pipe, if you like, proceed to
ground-bait the place by filliping in bread-pills
all round your bait and pretty wide of it. The

CH. I1.] HOW TO CATCH CARP. 35

two great objects should be, not to alarm the
Carp, and to get them to feed. They are very
timid, and if they have once taken fright at
anything, and left a place in consequence, it will
generally be a good while before they will return
to it. For this reason I prefer not to throw in
any ground-bait when fishing for them, until all
my preparations are made, and the actual bait
is in the water. If you can once induce them
to begin to feed, they will continue their search
for food in every direction, and infallibly in due
time come to your bait. When they begin to
come to the bread, if the bottom is at all muddy,
and the water not too deep, you will see lines
of mud stirred up by them as they come on nuz-
zling in it like so many pigs. You have then
only to keep perfectly quiet and bide your time.
The float will give you sufficient warning when
to strike, and you should only do so when the
Carp is going well and steadily away with it. If
your tackle is sound, and you are not in too
great a hurry, you may make pretty sure of
landing him, for, as Izaak Walton truly says,
“The Carp is a leather-mouthed fish, which doth
seldom break his hold.”

Although I think it better, for fear of alarm-
D2

36 TAME CARP—CARP BASKING. [PART 1.

ing the fish, not to throw in any ground-bait,
until the actual bait is ready, yet I am far from
saying that general ground-baiting in the place
where you intend to fish is a bad plan. On the
contrary, the more you feed in a particular place,
the more certain will the Carp be to resort to it,
and, by constantly doing so, you may get them
to become nearly or quite as tame as barn-door
fowls. I may instance those in the pond of the
garden attached to the Kursaal at Wiesbaden,
which are really a curious sight. Much more
interest and amusement is to be derived from
Carp than people in general are at all aware of:—
it seems a pity that they should, be so neglected
as they are in England.

When Carp are basking on the surface of the
water, they can scarcely ever be induced to take
a bait; nevertheless, if feeding is going on at the
bottom, they before very long by some myste-
rious sense become aware of it, and will wake
up and “go below to dine.” But though you
cannot catch them with a bait, while thus bask-
ing, yet you may occasionally do so without
one, by lightly throwing over and foul-hooking
them. This plan, with a large weighted treble
hook, is sometimes adopted with destructive effect

CH. I1.] CARP, EELS, AND ASSCHYLUS. 37

by poachers for salmon when lying at the bottom
in rivers:—it is then called “stroke-hauling.”
Grasshoppers, two put on back to back, form
by no means a bad bait for Carp late in the sum-
mer, but then they should be suspended by the
float about four or five inches from the bottom,
if possible, near some weeds or water-lilies, and
not very far from the bank. I was at home one
Long Vacation, when I supposed myself to be
reading Aischylus, inter alia. This I performed
by taking down to a summer-house, adjoining a
pond well-stocked with Carp, in one hand my
Eschylus and Lexicon, and in the other a cou-
ple of rods all ready for action. These latter I
laid in duly baited with grasshoppers (for I had
not then discovered the bread-dodge), and re-
tired to the summer-house, returning to visit
them after each hundred lines had been got
through. That was, at least, the rule I proposed
to myself, but I suspect I looked up occasionally
before I got to the end of the hundred, and,
if I saw the top of a rod bending, did not make
a point of waiting to finish them. Besides the
rods I had also some half-dozen night-lines set,
baited with worms for eels, which I visited peri-
odically—I think at the end of each scene. What

38 FISH-PONDS NEAR BRUSSELS—GREAT CARP. [PART I.

was the amount of Aschylus that I got through
under the circumstances I cannot undertake to
say, but I remember I had very good sport
as far as Carp and Eels went.

Worms are, I fancy, a better bait for Carp
early in the season, than later.

The weight of the largest Carp mentioned by
Yarrell is nineteen pounds and a half, but abroad,
if not in England, they occasionally attain a
much greater size.

Mr Maltby, our Vice-Consul at Brussels, has
within the last few years taken out of some pieces
of water, rented by him in the neighbourhood of
that city, Carp weighing no less than thirty-three
pounds ; and a friend of mine was present when,
in February of last year (1859), some twenty Carp
were taken from one of them, which ran from
about twenty up to twenty-five pounds each.
He endeavoured to bring five of the largest alive
to England with him, but, unluckily, from some
restrictions on the French line as to the carriage
of live produce, he was obliged, after taking them
a considerable distance, to send them back to
Ostend, before reaching which they died.

Through the courtesy of Mr Maltby, who ap-
pears to have considered the subject of breeding

CH. III.] MANAGEMENT OF FISH BY MR MALTBY. 39

and rearing fish with a degree of attention rarely
bestowed on it, IJ am enabled to give the mode
adopted by him in the management of his fish,
together with some other details connected with
it, which cannot, I think, fail to be generally
interesting.

The pieces of water rented by him are five in
number, namely, La Hulpe, a lake about twenty
acres in extent; Boilsfut, a lake of about seven
acres, five miles from La Hulpe; and three others
of about an acre each; these last being fed by
small independent streams and springs, the water
from which finds its way into the larger one,
Boilsfut. In this the fish increase rapidly in
weight, and their quality is precisely the same
as that of river-fish, although it contains no
gravel or stones, and a considerable quantity
of mud is continually deposited in it; the nu-
merous streams flowing into it, and the great
head of water always kept up (to supply a large
mill, which is at work below it the whole year
through), being the probable causes of their
doing so well there.

All these waters are however so cold, that,
except in favourable seasons, the Carp rarely
breed in them to any extent, one year only, out

40 INCREASE OF WEIGHT IN CARP. [PART I.

of about every four, yielding a supply sufficient
to maintain, unaided, an adequate stock. To ob-
viate this difficulty Mr Maltby purchases the stores
of Carp requisite to keep up his supply, when
they are two years old, the weight of each being
then from two to four ounces, and their price thir-
teen to fourteen francs a hundred. These he puts
into one of the three smaller ponds, and allows
them to remain there for a year, by which time they
have attained to about three-quarters of a pound
each. They being then rather too large mouth-
fuls for ordinary sized Jack, he transfers them to
one of the larger pieces of water, either La Hulpe
or Boilsfut. After having been a year in these
new quarters they are found to have increased in
weight from three-quarters of a pound to from
two pounds and a half to three pounds and a
half each, according to the health of the individual
fish ;—there being in fact no extraordinary increase
in the weight of Carp until they are three years
old, when they progress rapidly, until they attain
that of about six pounds. After that they do not
appear to continue to do so in a similar ratio.
Those of the largest size mentioned, twenty-five
and thirty-three pounds, he considers to have been
about fifteen or twenty years old; having how-

CH. IIl.] CHANGE OF WATER—MODE OF TRANSPORT. 41

ever purchased them when he became tenant of
the waters, he is unable to speak positively as to
their ages. He describes them as being very
handsome, and invaluable for breeding purposes,
though, for the reason above mentioned, he is
unable to rely exclusively on them for his stock.

Although both lakes, La Hulpe and Boilsfut,
are fairly well supplied by springs and natural
streams, yet he believes the qualities of the waters
flowing through them to be different, the sources
from which they are derived being distinct.

With a view therefore of promoting the growth
of his fish—a change of water being in his opinion
the means which, more than any other, conduce
to improve both their size and quality—he every
other year transports the smaller fish from Boils-
fut to La Hulpe, and vice versa. This he effects
by carting them across in barrels, the proportion
of water to fish in each being one-third water
and two-thirds fish. In order to insure them a
due supply of air during the transit, the hole in
the side of each barrel is bunged up with a wisp
of straw. By the jolting of the cart the fish are
kept in continual motion, and, while the water is
prevented from escaping, it becomes, by being
shaken against the straw, sufficiently charged with

42 GREAT INCREASE OF WEIGHT IN JACK. [PART I.

external air for the purpose of respiration. By
adopting this mode of carriage he never loses
five pounds weight out of three thousand pounds
transported.

The effect which such a change has upon
Jack appears to be most remarkable, the increase
in their weight, after removal, being in some cases,
at the rate of not less than from eight to ten
pounds a year. In the year 1856, for instance,
Mr Maltby marked and transferred from the large
lake of Boilsfut to that of La Hulpe, forty-five
Jack, averaging one with another two pounds
each; none of them weighing more than three
pounds. In eighteen months from the time
when they had been thus transferred, many of
these same fish were caught by trolling, having
attained the weight of from fifteen to twenty
pounds, being at the extraordinary rate above
mentioned.

This increase in the size of the Jack was so
sudden and unexpected, that nearly all the smaller
fish were destroyed by them, before any steps
could be taken for their removal. It was however
then effected by letting out the water, when the
Jack were placed in one of the smaller ponds
above mentioned. In this however, although it

CH. III.] DESTRUCTION CAUSED BY LARGE JACK. 43

contained a good supply of white fish, they rather
lost than gained weight, probably, as Mr Maltby
imagines, in consequence of there being a smaller
body of water running through it, and that colder,
from being nearer the source.

At the commencement of the year 1857, he had
purchased and turned into the Lake at Boilsfut
nine hundred Carp of a particularly good breed,
weighing, one with another, a pound each; but of
these, when the water was let out in the month
of October, not a single one was to be found, the
Jack not having suffered a solitary individual to
escape them. Since that time Mr Maltby has
allowed no Jack to be put into his water, as stock,
above a pound in weight, which (as younger fish
do not gain weight so fast,) will not increase in
a year to more than about three or four pounds.
It is only after attaining that weight that their
growth becomes so astonishingly rapid.

In the Lake at Boilsfut, Jack, Perch, and
white fish breed fast, but the fish born in that
Lake do not increase so fast by two-thirds as
those born in La Hulpe; so that, although their
transport from the one to the other is expensive,
yet it is made up for by the increase of weight in
the fish transported.

44 PERCH—PROFIT MADE BY FISH. [PART TI.

Perch do not appear to grow to a large size
in his waters, not running commonly to more than
a pound weight, although, from the large number
taken with rod and line, as much sometimes as
forty pounds weight to a single rod in a day,
they may scarcely have a fair chance of obtaining
their full dimensions. Thinking however that his
breed is an indifferent one, Mr Maltby has crossed
it with some from the Meuse, by which he hopes
to improve it. Similarly, with a view of improv-
ing his breed of Carp, he has imported some
from the Rhine, whereby he has already obtained
a very handsome cross in point of shape and
colour, besides an actual improvement in the
quality of the fish.

Every year, or every two years, he has a sale
of his fish, as well to cover rent and current ex-
penses, as because he gains nothing on large fish,
these not being marketable.

The profit made is upon those which weigh
three quarters of a pound when put in, and from
two pounds and a half to three pounds and a half
when taken out, so that he only saves such fish,
above those weights, as are peculiarly handsome
in shape and colour. The whole of his waters,
collectively, thus contain (with the exception of

-CH, III.] TENCH—QUALITY AND CONDITION OF FISH. 45

the very large ones) perhaps not more than a
hundred weighing above six pounds. But to give
‘an idea of the number of fish in them, he con-
siders that on a favourable day in April a single
rod may calculate upon catching from a hundred
to a hundred and fifty pounds weight of Carp.
Tench he finds to be very slow growers, and
he has a difficulty in ascertaining what water
suits them best. One year he had them up to
two pounds, but they were so much sought after,
that he was induced to allow all the best to be
sold, and there are now not many of above a
pound. The last has been an unusually favourable
breeding season for them, and at least ten thou-
sand have been thus added to his stock. He
considers them, for the table, by far the best fish
in his waters, being firm and full flavoured,
without the least taint of mud, so much so
indeed that they are found to be better plain-
boiled than dressed in any other way. The Carp
are also extremely good in quality, having a curd
like Salmon, and their condition, when in season,
being such, that the under side of one of four
or five pounds ordinarily exhibits a coating of
fat perhaps a quarter of an inch in thickness.
There can surely be no reason why breeds of

46 GROWTH PROMOTED BY CHANGE OF WATER. [PART I.

fish should not, by selection, proper management,
and feeding, be susceptible of improvement, just
as much as those of cattle, sheep, or poultry:
all that is required to insure it is doubtless care-
ful attention combined with a discriminating
judgment, such as Mr Maltby has brought to bear
upon the subject. It is much to be hoped that
it may be taken up by others who have time and
opportunities for prosecuting it, and that, stimu-
lated by his example, and encouraged by his
success, they will be induced to persevere, until
they have shewn that the many thousand acres
occupied by now unprofitable ponds, may be made
to return as good, if not (as I believe may be
the case) a better rate of interest, than the land
surrounding them.

The following incident occurs to me as decid-
edly tending to confirm Mr Maltby’s observation,
that the growth of fish is, under certain circum-
stances, much promoted by their transfer from
one piece of water to another.

In a pond, the Roach in which were very
numerous, and ran generally from about four to
six inches in length, a friend and I one morning,
just at the close of the hay-harvest—throwing a
worm fly-fashion, and drawing it in very slowly—

CH. III. ] INSTANCED BY ROACH. 47

caught, to our great surprise, some twenty or
thirty, weighing one with another nearly or quite
a pound each.

We were altogether at a loss to understand
what could have led to their attaining this unusual
size, until we found that about that number, which
had been taken out of another pond, and after-
wards for some time incarcerated in a tank in the
stable-yard, had been turned in there. The change
from the short commons on which they had been
kept in the tank, to the more liberal fare furnished
by their new quarters, added to the fact that the
pond, from being of comparatively recent construc-
tion, afforded an extra supply of food, had doubt-
less been the simple causes to which this increase
in their growth was attributable.

Besides these Roach and a quantity of others
of the ordinary size, we also caught the same day
as many, I think, as eight or ten carp, weighing
perhaps three to five pounds each, some eels, and
(unintentionally) two or three Trout, (part of a lot
which had been recently introduced,) so that that
morning’s work is impressed on my memory as
altogether about the most productive bit of pond-
fishing that I ever had.

The Trout, which it was hoped might have

48 NOISES MADE BY CARP AT NIGHT. [PART I.

become naturalized in the pond, gradually suc-
cumbed, as usual, to the muddiness of the water
caused by the Carp, it being from that cause
almost an impossibility to get the two to do well
together, unless the piece of water in which they
are placed have, running through it, a stream
sufficiently strong to carry off the mud.

It would seem, strange to say, that we that
day caught every one of the large Roach which the
pond contained. At least, I believe that never
since—and that must be now some twelve or fif-
teen years ago—has a single one approaching their
size been taken out of it.

If on a fine calm summer night you visit a
piece of water well stocked with Carp, especially
if its sides be perpendicular and faced with brick,
and the fish be numerous in proportion to the
feed, you will probably hear every now and then
a long-drawn sucking noise, followed by one as
of blowing. These are occasionally so loud and
striking, that although I imagined them to proceed
from Carp, yet I could scarcely persuade myself
that such was the case, until I had lain down on
the grass, and succeeded in touching them with
my hand whilst in the very act of producing them,
They are, I have no doubt, ascribable to the

CH. II1.] HOW THEY ARE PRODUCED. 49

Carp’s habit, while “priming” along the edges of
ponds at night, of sucking in from the interstices
amongst the bricks, &c., any insects which may be
lurking there, and which he could not otherwise
get within reach of his mouth, and afterwards
rejecting any substances which may not suit him,
all “between wind and water,” as a sailor would
say. The fact that these noises are louder, more
prolonged, and more frequent in a pond faced with
brickwork, than in one the sides of which slope off
gradually and present a comparatively even sur-
face, seems to lead to this conclusion. When
feeding Carp with bread, you may often see this
power of suction exercised by one as he rises
almost perpendicularly under a piece floating on
the surface, and draws it down in a little vortex
to his scarcely visible mouth, which, by the way,
is thus enabled to take in much larger morsels
than it otherwise could. A few minutes’ close
inspection of gold fish in an aquarium will shew
the same process of indraught and expulsion con-
tinually in operation.

J have no doubt that, owing to this habit of the
Carp in thus priming along the sides of ponds at
night, a night-line set with the bait hung on the

surface of the water, close to the edge, would be a
E

50 SPAWNING OF CARP. [PART I.

very killing dodge for them. It might be fastened
on a “bank-runner.”

Having noted, for some years, the days when
the Carp were spawning in several ponds in the
Isle of Wight, I find, on comparing my notes on
the subject, the earliest of these days to have been
the 19th of May, the latest the 3rd of July. The
time of spawning seems to depend much on the
mildness or backwardness of the spring, and also
on the position of the water, the Carp being always
earlier in a mild than in a cold season, and also
earlier in sheltered ponds than in those which are
exposed to currents of wind, and where the water
is colder, in consequence of its depth, or the influx
of a spring. I have, for instance, found the Carp
spawning in the same pond as early, after a mild
spring, as the 30th of May, and, after a backward
one, as late as the Ist of July ; and, again, in the
same year I have seen them spawning, in a shel-
tered pond, on the 19th of May, and, in a compara-
tively exposed and deep one, on the 1st of July,
the ponds being supplied by the same run of
water and only about a third of a mile apart, the
lower of the two being the earlier. My observa-
tions would lead me to conclude that the process
of spawning, with Carp, does not generally

CH. III.] SPAWN DEVOURED BY BIRDS AND FISH. 51

occupy more than a couple of days, and that it is
often performed in one. There are, however, occa-
sional exceptions, as I have seen it going on in the
same pond on the 3rd of June, and again on the
9th of the same month.

There can be no doubt that (in shallow ponds
particularly) a great part of the spawn is devoured
by water-birds, and that small fish, Roach for
instance, are also very destructive to it. Having
one day, after watching the Carp spawning, taken
up a position in a summer-house hard by, I saw fly
into the pond four Mallards, which within a minute
or two were busily engaged with their heads under
water exactly where I had seen the Carp. In a
very short time they were joined by a Moor-hen,
who also immediately went eagerly to work at the
same place.

I had at one time, by constantly feeding the
Roach in one of these ponds, brought them to such
a degree of tameness, that they would take bread
out of my fingers, and play round and through
them in scores. Generally they were collected in
numbers waiting to be fed at their accustomed
breakfast-time, but I noticed that, while the Carp
were engaged in spawning, only two or three made

their appearance, and even they would scarcely
E2

52 DACE CAUGHT WITH SPINNING-BAIT. [PART I.

look at the bread which I offered them, being
‘doubtless gorged with Carp-spawn. I have indeed
not unfrequently detected them apparently in the
very act, observing them at intervals dashing ra-
pidly about, close in the wake of Carp which were
engaged in spawning. But if Roach do, as I think
there can be no doubt, thus make free with the
spawn of Carp, yet I suspect they are useful to the
parent fish in relieving them from water-lice, with
which they are occasionally much infested. This
suspicion is grounded on the fact that having seen
Carp on the surface, with Roach swarming closely
round them, and, on several occasions, by foul-
hooking or otherwise, managed to take them from
out of the middle of such company, I invariably
found them to be suffering from these parasites.
When in this state they rapidly lose condition,
and sometimes become so poor and weak that they
will suffer themselves to be taken out of the water
with the hand.

I know of two instances where Dace have
been caught with a spinning-bait, not hooked
foul, but fairly in the mouth. One of these
was by Mr Gould, the fishing-tackle maker, in
the Colne: the other by a brother of mine in
a piece of water in Hampshire; the bait in the

CH. III.] CARP WITH MINNOW—EEL WITH FLY. 53

latter case being a German-silver kill-devil, and
the Dace not above six or seven inches in length.
But a friend of mine, a good fisherman, and whose
word cannot be doubted, assures me that he did
a much more extraordinary thing, having, whilst
fishing in the Canal near Waverley Abbey, Hants,
actually caught with a live minnow a Carp weigh-
ing about three quarters of a pound.

The Dace were probably allured by the glitter
of the bait, and may have taken it for sport, or
to ascertain what it was,—for I apprehend that
they never really feed upon small fry; but the
Carp must have taken the minnow deliberately,
and, from that circumstance, I should conclude
that they do occasionally, either when pressed
by hunger, or from a morbid appetite, take a
minnow or so by way of a change.

I once caught an Eel with a fly. This how-
ever sounds so very extraordinary, that, in order
to save my character for veracity, I must mention
the circumstances under which it occurred. I had
been fishing in a pond for Roach with the natural
fly, when, inhospitably wishing to “shirk” a party
of visitors whom I saw driving up to the house
by an approach which commanded my position,
I put down my rod, leaving the fly in the water.

54 PERCH WITH THE FLY. [PART I.

On my return I found it had been gorged by an
Eel, not a large one, but still quite large enough
to swear by.

It is pretty generally known that Perch will
occasionally take a fly. Although they will rarely
do so in rivers, yet in ponds not only is such a
circumstance not of unfrequent occurrence, but
the fly is actually sometimes one of the best baits
that can be used for them. As a proof of this,
a friend of mine one day caught in this way in
Little Frencham Pond, not far from Farnham,
sixty-five Perch averaging about a pound each;
and on the same day, another rod, also fishing:
with the fly—a brightish one, such as you would
use for Sea-Trout—caught there between eighty
and ninety pounds weight of Perch, besides a Jack
of about six pounds.

CHAPTER IV.

In selection of Flies, colour, not form—Old rule, “Light fly
Jor darkness,” &e. rather to be. reversed—Fastening for
Casting-line—Ditto for Bob-flies—Make-shift Gaff—Cut-
and-thrust Rod-spear—Simple Clearing-line—Fastening
Jor loose Reel—Fish slowly with Fly—Straight line—
Hair casting-lines—Tailing fly with “ Gentle” —Fishing
near Geneva—Versoixa—Eau de Lyon—Lines on Versoix
—In Trailing, side neat shore best—In Sea-fishing, stern
of boat better than bow.’

AM persuaded that for fly-fishing colour, not

form, is the principal thing to be looked to
in the selection of flies. This scarcely any one
can doubt who has seen—perhaps with a feeling
akin to envy—the advantage which a ‘provincial
furnished with coarse tackle and the roughest
home-made flies has on a river which he knows,
over another (possibly a better fisherman) who
comes to it elaborately equipped, and with his
book stored with the choicest specimens of Bow-
ness’ art, but ignorant of the exact colour to
adopt. Had I wanted a convincing proof of this,
it was afforded me some years ago whilst fishing

56 FOR FLIES COLOUR, NOT FORM. [PART I.

the Avon near Cot in Devonshire. I had up as
a bob a small greyish-brown palmer made by one
Godden at Whitchurch in Hampshire, and finding
that the Trout evinced a decided preference for
this, I put up another as a stretcher, tied by him at
the same time and to the same pattern, and, so far
as I could see, exactly similar to it. They would
not however look at this one, but continued tak-
ing the other freely, even after it was chewed to
ribbons—the hackle unwound, and hanging an inch
below the hook—until at last, in consequence of
the silk following its example, I was obliged to
discard the fly altogether. I replaced it with
another of the same lot, but the great attraction
was gone. Besides proving their penchant for a
particular shade of colour and their indifference
to mere form, this incident also shews the great
nicety of sight possessed by Trout. On this oc-
casion, out of two and a half dozen which I
caught whilst I had these palmers up, at least
two dozen and two fell to the share of the
favourite bob.

If the old rule of “alight fly for darkness
and a dark fly for lightness” be ever at all correct,
I think it can only be applicable to night-fishing,
as I have certainly more frequently found the

CH.Iv.] “LIGHT FLY FOR LIGHTNESS: QU.? 57

converse to hold good during the day. There
are, however, doubtless occasional exceptions, such
for instance as the yellow cow-dung fly, which I
have found a great killer on a stormy day, par-
ticularly among meadows, where the natural fly
would abound, and when it would be swept off
upon the water.

On “stickles” (the expressive Devonshire word
for the broken water at the head of pools) I think
I have generally found a small bright fly (yellow
floss-silk body and starling wing, for instance)
kill better than a larger sombre one, but the
latter to answer better in the still dark pools.
This, which I have noticed quite independently of
the last theory, certainly tends to support it, as
Trout, in common with most fresh-water fish, un-
doubtedly lie upon the shallows when the weather
is bright and hot, and retire to the deeper water
as it becomes cold and gloomy. It is for the
same reason, as I believe, that Trout do not, in hot
weather, so much affect those parts of a river
which are densely wooded, and consequently shad-
ed, as those which lie open and exposed to the
sun. A red fly I have always found kill better
rather late in the evening than at any other time
of the day. In the white-moth tribe, as night-flies,

58 FASTENING FOR CASTING-LINE. [PART I.

I have not much faith, though I have heard of
their doing good service;—when they do answer,
I imagine it is only on very warm evenings.

Let me recommend those, who have been in
the habit of fastening their casting-line to the
line by a loop on each, to adopt the much bet-
ter plan of having merely a knot at the end of
the line and a loop in the casting-line. They
are then most easily fastened by
just passing the knotted line through
the loop, giving it one turn round
it, and then bringing it back again
between the loop and the line as in
Fig. 7, after which the latter is
pulled down to the knot. This mode
of fastening relieves you from the

nuisance of having to pass all your casting-line
through the loop, and often saves much trouble
if you happen to get hung up. It possesses also
the decided advantage of rendering your line
lighter to cast with.

As a mode of fastening bob-flies to the cast-
ing-line I find the following much the best and
most serviceable that I have ever tried, combin-
ing, as it does, the three great essentials of
strength, lightness, and general convenience. The

CH.Iv.] | FASTENING FOR BOB-FLIES. 59

casting-line should be cut at the place where
you wish the bob-fly to be attached, and the two
ends placed overlapping one another. With each
end (previously well soaked) you make a simple
knot round the adjacent part of the casting-line,
and draw them moderately tight. Then, having
previously cut the gut attached to the bob-fly to
the proper length, and tied a knot in it to pre-
vent it from slipping, you insert the knotted end
between the two pieces of the casting-line which
lie between the knots, and give it a single turn
round one of them. Then just draw these knots
together. Pull down the gut of the bob-fly to
the knot in it. Wet the knots once more in
your mouth to make assurance doubly sure; pull
each of those on the casting-line quite tight, and
then the two firmly together. It is now complete.
When clipping off the ends of the gut however
remember to leave about a sixteenth of an inch
projecting beyond each of the two knots in the
casting-line. Should you wish to change your fly,
you can then, taking hold of one end with your
teeth and the other with a small pair of pliers,
which no fly-book should be without, pull them
apart, take out your fly, put in another, and
draw them together again. This fastening, before

60 MAKE-SHIFT GAFF. [PART I.

the knots in the casting-line are drawn together
will appear thus.

Fig. 8.

Fastening for Bob-flies.

I always, in making up my own casting-lines,
use this description of knot throughout, finding
it (so far as my experience goes) less likely to
slip than any other. It may appear somewhat.
complicated at first sight, but will be found very
simple in practice.

The following substitute for a gaff will be
found to answer sufficiently well on a pinch, and
save you the trouble of carrying about a regular
gaff, when it may be inconvenient to do so. Whip
any large, long-shanked hook on to a piece of
string about five feet long, commencing at the
bend and fastening off half-way up the shank,

CH.IV.] | CUT-AND-THRUST ROD-SPEAR. 61

leaving the other half bare. Thrust this bare
end into the pith of an elder or withy stick
about four feet in length, which you can cut
when likely to want it, and, after giving the string
two or three turns round the stick, bring it up
to your hand, having previously made a loop in the
end to hold it by. The act of striking a fish
will bring the gaff out of the stick, which you
may drop altogether, the line on it being quite
sufficient to land him with,

A rod-spear made on the principle of the
annexed drawing, to cut and thrust, may not un-

Fig. 9.

Cut-and-thrust Rod-spear.

frequently be found of service for cutting away
twigs or weeds in which your fly has got en-
tangled, they being often just too far for the
fisherman to reach with the ordinary appliances
at hand. Many a good fish has been lost for
want of such a thing, and that in the most ag-
gravating way possible, when quite exhausted
and all but within reach of the net, by the bob-
fly getting hung up.

62 CLEARING-LINE—TO SECURE REEL. [PART I.

A simple method of clearing your line,
when otherwise “in trouble” is to fasten a stone
to a piece of stout string, which should be al-
ways carried in the fishing-basket, and then,
pitching the stone over the offending branch or
weeds, haul away at the string. This expedient
will often set you free at once, and save a deal
of bother.

When fishing with a rod to which there is
no convenience for fastening the reel, a piece of
leather wetted and put under the reel before it
is tied on, will be found sufficient to keep it from
slipping. When the straight piece of brass under
the reel is too small for the hollow made to re-
ceive it in the rod, a slight bend given down-
wards to the brass, which can generally be done
with the hand, will, on an emergency, be found
to make it fit sufficiently tight for use.

My experience leads me to believe that—whe-
ther using the fly or spinning—it is, if your tackle
is fine, a great mistake to fish too fast. The act
of drawing the fly along rapidly imparts to it an
unnatural motion,—for when did a Trout ever see
a fly propelling itself rapidly under water? Be-
sides this it must have a tendency to bring the
fly to the surface, when it leaves a wake behind

CH. Iv.] FISH SLOWLY—HAIR. 63

it which cannot but frighten the fish. Although
small fish will take a fly under such circumstances,
as, like kittens, they will run at almost anything
which passes rapidly by them, yet it is rarely
that a steady old Trout can be induced to do so.
It is even more essential, when fishing with a
“dry fly,’ to leave it almost entirely to its own
devices, as it will thus float much longer than
it would if interfered with, and its movements
unnaturally hastened. These observations do not
apply with equal force to the bob-fly, which, tra-
versing the surface of the water (as its name im-
plies) with a succession of dips or bobs, might
be taken by Trout for the natural insect. Steady
fishing will however be found more successful
even with the bob-fly. In casting generally,
straightness of line is in my opinion the first
point to be aimed at, and lightness the second.
Both however are most essential. It should be
a rule never to fish with a yard more line than
is absolutely necessary.

In some very fine, clear water, Trout can be
taken with a hair casting-line, when it would be
almost useless to fish with one of gut. I found
this to be the case on the Wharfe, where the
tackle ordinarily used consists of a hair casting-

64 FLY TAILED WITH “GENTLE.” [PART I.

line and five or six diminutive flies also tied on
hair, and where I was told it would be lost la-
bour to try gut. I was rather sceptical on the
point, and tried fine gut, but soon had to resign
it in favour of hair, when I found an immediate
and striking difference. Where the water is clear,
it may, I am persuaded, be often used to great
advantage. It is somewhat troublesome to fish
with, inasmuch as it requires great care in its use;
—for, if you get hung up slightly, and clear your-
self without a breakage or apparent mischief, yet
perhaps the hair will start at a knot in conse-
quence of the strain and come asunder a minute
or two afterwards at the slightest touch. It is
however astonishing, if the pull be a steady one,
how much it will bear.

When the water is very clear and bright,
Trout will sometimes take the fly freely if tailed
with a gentle, while they will not touch it with-
out. A friend of mine, then residing at Geneva,
and one of the best fishermen I ever knew, who
used to catch a good many Trout in the neigh-
bouring streams, considered it useless to go out
when the water was in that state, unless he was
provided with a supply of “fruit,” as he called
them. No one would probably take advantage of

CH.IV.] STREAMS NEAR GENEVA—VERSOIX. 65

this dodge, unless driven to extremity, when it
surely may be permissible. One calm bright day,
when the water was very clear, I had been whip-
ping a loch in Argyleshire with scarce any suc-
cess, when I happened to see something depend-
ing from the brim of my wide-awake. On taking
it off, I discovered that the object was a white
caterpillar, and, remembering this dodge, immedi-
ately availed myself of his volunteered services,
by tailing my fly with him, the result being a
good sea-trout the very first cast.

Having casually alluded to Geneva, I may
mention that there are two good fishing-streams
within reach of it. One, the Versoix, rising in
the slopes of the Jura, and flowing into the
Lake about seven miles above Geneva, is a charm-
ing bright, lively stream, running through very
pretty scenery, rather wooded in some places, but
in others fairly open and easy to fish. Though
Trout are not very abundant in it, yet they are
some of the most beautiful, as well as the best
for the table, that I ever came across. They run
occasionally up to two or three pounds,—a miller
indeed caught one of between six and seven pounds
in his mill-tail—and enough can generally be met

with to make it quite worth while to try for them.
F

66 EAU DE LYON—LINES ON VERSOIX. [PART I.

The scenery however would alone quite repay the
fisherman. The other stream, the “Eau de Lyon,”
or “London” (as it is sometimes called), joins.
the Rhone about twelve miles below Geneva.
This, also flowing from the Jura in a clear stream,
runs, for some miles above the river, through an
open country, mostly clothed with juniper, and
nearly the whole of it can be, thus far, easily
commanded. It abounds with Trout and Gray-
ling, but the Trout do not generally run so large
there as in the Versoix.

The following lines—a well-merited tribute to
the charms of the Versoix—were sent me by a
friend, with whom I had passed some long-to-be-
remembered days by its banks.

VERSOIX.

Aye! many a pleasant day was ours
Where the crystal Versoix ran

To end its brief, pure, glittering course
In the bosom of blue Leman.

There was joy in the fresh clear dawn of day,
There was joy in the glowing noon,

And a deeper joy in our homeward way
By the light of the quiet moon.

There was joy in the path ’neath the old oaks’ shade,
Through the wood so calm and cool;

There was joy in the roar of the far cascade,
There was joy in the deep still pool.

CH. IV.] SHORE-SIDE BEST IN TRAILING. 67

And long may it run, for a sweeter stream
Never fisher nor painter saw,

And nierrier Trout never leapt in the beam
Than the Trout of the swift Versoix.

When trailing a bait in lakes, the side next
the shore will almost invariably afford the best
sport. The same remark applies to rivers, when
trailing from a boat. When from a punt how-
ever—that being commonly worked close along
the bank—the case is of course different, as the
fish, which are lying under its shelter, are thus
naturally disturbed and driven into deeper water.

In sea-fishing, those in the stern of the boat
will generally be found to have better sport than
those in the bow. That this is the case I have little
doubt, it having been often remarked by others as
well as myself. As to the reason why it should be
so, I have a difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory
conclusion. I used to imagine that, as the scent
of the baits would be carried down with the tide,
the fish below, becoming sensible of it, and fol-
lowing it up, would naturally arrive first at the
baits from the stern. But this theory was shaken
whilst I was fishing one blustery day on a Scotch
loch. On that occasion the wind was stronger

than the tide, and the boat consequently swung
F2

68 STERN OF BOAT IN SEA-FISHING. [PART I.

stern to the current. This seemed, however, to
make no difference, and the lines in the stern
had, as usual, the advantage. Possibly, after all,
the cable and anchor may have more to do with
it than one would naturally imagine, and be the
cause which prevents the lines in the bow from
having their full share of sport.

CHAPTER V.

On Sea-fishing—Fine Tackle required—Best form of Tackle
Jor general use—* Tell-tale” or “ Dodger” —Baiis—on
South Coast—in Scotland—Fly-fishing in Sea-lochs— Mode
of proceeding—Gaff essential—Executioner.

T seems to me that the subject of Sea-fishing

has never been treated with the attention it
deserves. About Fly-fishing, Bottom-fishing, and
nearly every other branch of the “gentle a Me
books enough to stock a library have been written,
and but little remains to be said with regard to
them; but as to Sea-fishing the case is altogether
different. Comparatively little interest is taken
in it as a pursuit, and those who would gain any
information on the subject from books, will find
but few which treat of it at all, and those in but
a very meagre and cursory manner. And yet it
is one for which these shores offer abundant op-
portunities; is in itself pleasant, interesting, and
often very exciting, and one moreover in which
success depends in great measure on the care
and skill of the fisherman.

70 ON SEA-FISHING. [PART I.

People really seem generally to regard sea-fish
as a low order of brutes, almost destitute of com-
mon instinct, and upon which any care or atten-
tion would be quite thrown away. A fisherman,
who piques himself on the fineness of his river-
tackle, and would sedulously clip off the sixteenth
of an inch of gut which might project beyond a
knot, or discard a whole length, if it happened to
be at all flat or opaque, will yet be content to have
next his hooks, when Sea-fishing, snooding as thick
as an ordinary salmon-line, and often untwisted
so as rather to resemble mop-yarn than what it
pretends to be,—this roughly tied on coarse rusty
hooks, and the rest of his apparatus clumsy to
match. Now such a person need scarcely be re-
minded that all animals, sea-fish included, have an
instinctive sense of danger, and that it would be
difficult to convey to any one the knowledge that
a trap is laid for him, more effectually than
by exhibiting next the hook such very obvious
machinery for his destruction. Why, it’s a positive
insult to the intelligence of the fish! “If a thing
is worth doing at all, it is worth doing well,” says
the old proverb; and yet many a man at the sea-
side, when inclined to “have a turn at the Whit-
ing,” without taking the slightest trouble about

CH.V.] SEA-FISHING—USE FINE TACKLE. 71

the matter himself, simply tells any boatman,
whom chance throws in his way, to have “hooks
and lines and all that sort of thing” ready, an
order which the man executes by looking out
some rusty old tackle kept for summer-visitors,—
“they don’t know no better,—which he tells
him are “all right.”. He, taking for granted that
the boatman’s tackle must be “the correct thing,”
goes out, perhaps never looks at the hooks, which
are baited for him by the boatman, and comes
back with two or three deluded flatfish and pos-
sibly a conger of a couple of pounds, all that he
has to shew for several hours’ work, and ten
or fifteen shillings that the boat has cost him.
Of course he attributes his want of success to
wind, or tide, or absence of fish, never dreaming
that his own carelessness has had anything to do
with it.

As a practical proof of the advantage which
fine tackle has over coarse at this work, the
following striking instance will suffice:—I was out
with a brother of mine, and a boatman who had
been all his life used to the place and fishing,
being indeed a fisherman by trade. He used
his own coarse tackle, whilst my brother and I
fished with our own—good hooks whipped on gut,

72 TACKLE FOR SEA-FISHING. [PART 1.

and with lines, “chopsticks,” &c. fine in proportion.
The result was that we caught some four or five
dozen good pout, &c. between us, while the boat-
man did not succeed in catching one single fish
of any sort or kind. And it must not be supposed
that his time was taken up with baiting our hooks;
—we preferred doing that for-ourselves.

There is perhaps no better form of tackle for
general use in Sea-fishing than that commonly
adopted of two “chopsticks” fastened at right
angles, or nearly so, to each other, and having the
plummet affixed to them at the point of junction,
They should be about eight or nine inches long,
the best material for them being perhaps whale-
bone, or really good tough wood, such as hickory.
Stout brass wire however answers the purpose
very fairly. This may be run through the upper
part of the plummet, and the two ends, after giving
each a half-turn round it, bent at right angles to
each other. The object of having the chopsticks
set at an angle instead of in a straight line is to
make them hang steadily when the tide is run-
ning. They would otherwise be apt to turn round.
When trying for heavy fish—Hake for instance—
with a large bait, it is better to dispense with
chopsticks altogether and use a single hook. At

CH. V.] “‘ TELL-TALE”—BAITS USED IN ENGLAND. 73

the end of each of the chopsticks should be a loop,
between which and the hook should be about a
foot of good gut. In principle of course the longer
this gut is, the better; but in practice it will be
found that if it is much longer than this, it is apt
to get in the way—the hooks becoming entangled
with each other, and the chopsticks. Any one
who does not mind the additional expense, will
find his comfort much promoted by the use of
plaited lines, instead of the twisted ones, which
are usually sold for the purpose, they being (at
first particularly) abominably addicted to kinking,
a habit of which it requires a good deal of time
and trouble to cure them.

On some parts of the South Coast, particularly
when fishing for Whiting-Pollack (Whiting-Cole, as
they are there generally called), they employ, be-
sides their hand-lines, one which they calla “Tell-
tale” or “Dodger.” This consists of a long hair-
line with gut next the hook, lightly leaded, and
floated off astern of the boat by a large float or
bung. On this they catch the best fish, and not
unfrequently a Mackerel.

The principal baits used for sea-fishing along
the coast of England are the lug-worm (generally
called “lug”), shrimps, hermit-crabs (in the South

74 BAITS USED IN SCOTLAND. [PART I.

called “génsers!”), cockles, mussels, and pieces of
fish, principally whiting and herring. These baits
I have arranged according to the estimation in
which I think they are generally held, regard being
also had to the comparative difficulty of procuring
them, which of course differs on different parts of
the coast. Fish, as bait, stand somewhat apart
from the others, as they are generally only used
when others fail, though they occasionally answer
extremely well, herrings especially.

In Scotland the baits used, so far as my obser-
vation extends, are more limited, as they seem to
discard the use of lug, at least along the West
coast, and to rely almost exclusively on mussels
and cockles, the former being decidedly preferred.
Pieces of herring, whiting, and the power-cod, are
however much depended on, especially herring,
than which it is indeed perhaps impossible to find
a better bait. The worst of mussels is, that they
are so difficult to bait with and so easily pulled off
the hooks. This is, to some extent, obviated by
par-boiling them, but unfortunately the fish decid-
edly prefer them au naturel. In baiting with
mussels, the hook should always be first run
through a small dark heart-shaped substance, po-

1 Qu. from cancer ?

CH. V.] _SEA FLY-FISHING. 75

pularly called the “tongue,” as the toughest part.
It will be found near that part of the fish with
which it adheres to the rocks.

Where Cuddies (the young of the Saithe or
Coal-fish) abound, it is almost hopeless to attempt
fishing with mussels, for the moment the bait is
down, it is nibbled off by them, while they them-
selves, from their small size (generally from four
to six inches in length), manage to escape the hook.

The best way of having your revenge on them
is with a small white fly made of a piece of goose’s
or gull’s feather, which may be tied in the simplest
manner, merely taking care to allow a piece of
about three quarters of an inch in length to pro-
ject beyond the hook. With flies thus made and
set up in the following way almost any number
may be taken:—You should use a stout rod and
line, (which must be on a reel,) with a strong gut
collar (casting-line) a little longer than the rod.
To this collar you may attach, by pieces of gut
three or four inches long, as many flies as there is
conveniently room for. Eight or ten is a common
number, but this may be doubled. Between the
line and the collar it will be found very useful to
have a swivel, and also above the tail-fly a weight,
which may be a length of about a dozen shot, like

76 SEA FLY-FISHING. [PART I.

those recommended for spinning. When thus
ready for a start you should, with the point of
your rod slanted down into the water (more or less
according to its depth), and about fifteen or twenty
yards of line out, be rowed over the most likely
parts of it. You will probably, though tempted to
do so at first, find it a loss of time to pull up as soon
as you feel you have a fish on, but prefer waiting
until the strain on the rod tells you that you have
enough to make it worth while. Then, raising the
point of it, up they will come in a string, perhaps
from half a dozen to nearly three times that num-
ber. I believe I may say I have seen each of six-
teen hooks ona line garnished with a fish at the
same time, and I have myself brought up two on
one hook. While at anchor I have, merely with a
single joint of a rod, or a walking-stick, with two
or three flies attached to it, caught scores of these
little fellows, by simply moving it backwards and
forwards under water. With a hoop-net, like a
minnow-net on a large scale, great numbers can be
caught off the stern of a vessel at anchor, if they
have been previously attracted to the spot by
baiting it freely.

Were the sport, whilst fishing with the fly in
the way last described, confined to Cuddies, it

CH. V.] SEA FLY-FISHING—SAITHE. 17

might be considered somewhat tame, but this is
by no means the case, as, in addition to these, you
catch very many larger fish, principally Lythe
(Whiting-Pollack), which sometimes run up to
twelve pounds weight or more, Stenlocks (the
second growth of the Coal-fish1), and Codlings, with
now and then, though rarely, a Mackerel. <A day’s
fishing of this kind therefore often yields, not only
a numerous score, but a very respectable one in
point of weight and variety.

Saithe (the full-grown Coal-fish'), which run
up to a very large size—I have heard as much
as. twenty-five or thirty pounds—are occasionally
caught in this way. Last year (1858), I was
trailing, whilst running up a Scotch loch under
sail with the wind, when one of my flies was taken
by a large fish, which naturally ran off in an oppo-
site direction to the boat. The sail being boomed
out, before we could bring her round, he had run
out the whole of my line, and, apparently without
an effort, carried away casting-line and flies. This
was probably a Saithe, and his weight could not
have been much, if at all, under fifteen pounds,
while it might have been double that.

The weight, the use of which I have recom-

1 See note, page 82.

78 GAFF ESSENTIAL. [PART I.

mended next the tail-fly, will be found advanta-
geous, as it not only displays the flies to greater
advantage, but keeps them nearer the bottom,
where the heavier fish lie, while it enables you to
keep the point of your rod much nearer the sur-
face of the water, if not altogether clear of it.
Care is however required when it is used, as the
Lythe, when hooked, immediately run into the
sea-weed, if they can, and thus often not only get
off themselves, but cause serious damage to your
tackle, which, for this reason, should be of extra
strength. The swivel next the line will prevent
the casting-line from becoming twisted, which will
otherwise be invariably found to occur when fish
are not taken in immediately, but pulled along for
any time after the boat. To make the tackle per-
fect, there should be a small swivel between each
fly and the casting-line.

It should be a standing rule never to go out
Sea-fishing without a Gaff. If you also take with
you a full-sized landing-net, so much the better.
You can never tell what you may come across, and
the Gaff may save you many a big fish, while the
landing-net will be found a great assistance in
enabling you to secure good ones,—such, for
instance, as you would probably meet with many

CH. V.] “ EXECUTIONER.” 79

of in a day’s Haddock-fishing, and which, though
not sufficiently large to call for the use of the Gaff,
you would still be sorry to lose. If your fish run
large, and particularly if you are likely to have
Hake or Congers to deal with, it is also quite as
well to be provided with a short heavy stick as
an “executioner”’, for—irrespective of humanity
—four or five such fish, if left to their own de-
vices on board, are apt—especially if your boat
be a small one—to make themselves anything but
pleasant compagnons de voyage.

1 See page 31.

CHAPTER VI.

Lochs on West Coast of Scotland—Animal life—Shell-fish—
Fish—Plague of Dog-fish—Lobsters—Salmon and Sea-
trout—A singular trio—Salmon detained in Salt-water
become diseased—Artificial “ Spate” for Salmon—Salmon
passively following the line when hooked.

HE way in which some of the Sea-lochs on

the West coast of Scotland teem with animal
life is truly marvellous. The shores are in many
places literally covered with Shell-fish, which are
exposed at low-water, while the lochs seem to
abound with fish almost to an equal extent. The
Shell-fish mostly consist of mussels, cockles, win-
kles and oysters, and, when I say that the shores
are in parts covered with them, I am not in the
least exaggerating the actual fact. I well remem-
ber, when I first made acquaintance with that part
of the country, my surprise at being shewn in Loch
Creran a dark-blue bank, forming at low water a
peninsula perhaps a hundred yards long by some
fifty wide, and being told that the colour of
this proceeded from mussels. I half thought my

CH. VI.] | SHELL-FISH IN SCOTCH SEA-LOCHS. 81

informant was joking, but, on landing, found that
he was not only in earnest but perfectly correct,
the whole of it being one mass of mussels (mostly
small), lying edgeways, and so densely packed that
it would have been apparently a matter of diffi-
culty to insert a pin’s point between any two of
them. It seemed difficult to comprehend how,
under the circumstances, they could manage to
open their shells sufficiently for the necessary
functions of life. Oysters too were numerous, but
in consequence of the increasing demand for them
they are more sought after than they used to
be, and it would not be perhaps now quite so
easy to gather a sackful as it was a few years
ago. Vessels also come round occasionally for
winkles, and take away cargoes of them to Glas-
gow, but there are apparently enough to withstand
such inroads for many a long year to come. On
the mussels it would seem that nothing can make
the least impression, so vast are their numbers.

Of all the fish which inhabit the Scotch
lochs, Cuddies are by far the most numerous.
They seem perfectly ubiquitous there, and oc-
casionally swarm to an astonishing degree; so
much so sometimes as positively to discolour the

water in places where abundance of food has
G

82 FISH IN SCOTCH SEA-LOCHS. [PART I.

induced them to congregate. Next to these, Cod
and Codlings, Flounders, and Lythe are generally
the most plentiful. They are, however, varied by
many others, among which I may particularly
notice, as very familiar, those sea-pike, the Hake,
brutes for whom it is the fashion to fish with a
hook apparently large enough for a Shark, affixed
to a chain nearly as large as a jack-chain, but
which—however little one might suspect it from
their formidable rows of teeth, and (occasionally)
voracious appetites—seem to nibble as gently and
delicately as a roach, and, when they are not in-
clined to bite, are often felt rubbing against your
plummet, and actually raising it up, as if they
were scratching their backs against it,—as I dare
say they are; Gurnet, who when they are hoisted
on board, and at intervals, as long as they have
power to express their feelings, grunt out their
disapprobation of your proceedings; the beautiful
little golden-opal-tinted Power-Cod, there called
“King-fish ” (I am sorry to use so many epithets,
but he deserves them all); Sillocks’, (Stenlocks or
Stedlocks) and Saithe (Coal-fish of more advanced

1 There is some little confusion with regard to the names

of this fish, which differ in different parts of the coast. Al-
though Sillock, Stenlock, and Stedlock are, I believe, always

CH. VI.] FISH OFF THE SCOTCH COAST. 83

ages); the Sea-bream (Scoticé, on West coast,
“Silver Haddie,”) strong in the water, brilliant of
eye, and hard to handle; the Skate, whose face
when turned on his back presents a most ludicrous
resemblance to that of a crying child; and the
hideous Sea Devil, all mouth and fins, looking
like a cross between a toad and a night-jar. Spe-
cimens of rarer fishes are too occasionally met
with. Last year, for instance, I took out of a
Lobster-trap a Three-bearded Rockling, as men-
tioned below (page 86), and this year (1859)—on
a long line—one of that remarkable and fantastic
looking species, the Gemmous Dragonet, seven
inches in length.

As you leave the shelter of the lochs, and stand
out farther into the open sea, the varieties of fish
which you will bring up become more largely in-
creased, and commonly embrace Haddock, Tusk,
Ling, Conger-eels, and Nurse (“Small Spotted Dog-
fish,” Yarrell), (though the three latter also often

used to denote one growth of the Coal-fish, and Saithe an-
other, yet in some places the half-grown fish are called Saithe
and the full-grown ones Sillock, &c., whilst in others, and more
generally, the reverse is the case. As compared with Salmon
the three growths of Cuddy, Sillock or Stenlock, and Saithe,
would very nearly, in weight as in other points, correspond to
Salmon-fry, Grilse, and Salmon.

G2

84 PLAGUE OF DOG-FISH. [PART I.

find their way far up into the larger lochs,) with
several other species, “quos nunc describere lon-
gum est.” Nurse are not generally considered
very good for the table, but I met last year a
gentleman who told me “in confidence,’ that he
considered them, as a foundation for soup, better
than any other fish, adding that from their being
held in slight estimation by others he generally
managed to get on easy terms those which were
caught in his neighbourhood. I hope he won’t be
angry with me for “blowing on” his secret.

Last spring (1858) the North West coast of
Scotland was visited by a plague of Dog-fish,
which swarmed in such inconceivable numbers that
the ordinary deep sea-fishing was rendered almost
entirely nugatory, much to the injury of the poor
fishermen, who in great measure rely upon the
produce of this occupation for their living. It
was perfectly useless to set long lines, for only
the Skeletons of the Cod, &c. were brought up,
the voracious Dog-fish having torn them to pieces
and picked their bones on the hooks. It was in-
deed as much as they could do, even when fishing
with hand-lines, to bring any to the surface before
pieces had been bitten out of them. I have been
told of an instance where a fisherman hauled in

CH. VI.] CRUEL REVENGE—LOBSTERS. 85

three of these beasts with their teeth fast into a
Cod which he had hooked,—and of another, where
a man, before taking in a Cod which he had
brought to the surface, pulled out with his hand
no less than nine in succession, as they endea-
voured to seize it. An attempt was made to utilise
the Dog-fish, by extracting oil from them. They
were however, from their numbers, half starved, and
so miserably poor that it was a complete failure.

Tt can hardly be wondered that Dog-fish are
universally objects of detestation to fishermen, by
whom no mercy is shewn them, and who some-
times indeed wreak their vengeance on them in
very cruel ways, such for instance as by sticking
corks on their dorsal spines, when, being unable
to descend, the poor wretches must miserably end
their days upon the surface, unless released from
their sufferings by a passing Gull. I have seen,
when a boy, eight or ten of them tied along a
stick, and thus sent adrift together.

Besides the fish which I have mentioned as
inhabiting the Scotch sea-lochs, in some of them,
and particularly those of some of the Western
Islands, Lobsters are numerous, and run to a great
size. For these some friends and I, whilst in
shooting quarters by one of these lochs, utilised

86 DRUM-NET—LOBSTERS—WHISTLE-FISH. [PART I.

with great success a common Drum-net, which I
purchased (originally with a view to eels) at
Good's, in King William Street, City,—where I also
got the best snooding, in point of strength and
fineness, that I have ever seen—finding it well
adapted for the purpose, and admitted to be far
superior to those which are generally used there
by the resident population. These latter are, as
well as the former, made of net stretched over a
wooden frame, but form a shape like a trunk with
an arched top, having one or two apertures in
the sides to admit the fish. The Drum-net is
formed of a net stretched upon three hoops, kept
apart by sticks fastened to them, the ends of the
net being drawn in by strings leading through to
the opposite end, on the principle of the eel-pot :—
“Facilis descensus Averni, sed revocare gradum!”
In this manner we caught a considerable number,
more indeed than we well knew what to do with,
including one weighing upwards of seven pounds,
and another, minus one of its large claws, of six
pounds and a quarter. Not unfrequently an Eel
or other stray fish would find its way into the
hoop-net, one being an unusually large specimen
of the Three-bearded Rockling or Whistle-fish, two
pounds weight, and eighteen and a half inches long.

CH. VI.] SALMON AND SEA TROUT. 87

The heads of those Sea-lochs which form the
embouchures of favourite Salmon-rivers, often
become the temporary resting-places of Salmon and
Sea Trout, which are not unfrequently weather-
bound there for weeks together, being prevented
by want of water from ascending the river for
which they were making. The fish meanwhile
continuing to flock in, such a loch, after a long
spell of dry weather, sometimes swarms with them
in a manner scarcely credible. I know of one,
the precise locality of which I trust I shall be
forgiven for not pointing out,—

“There is a stream, I name not its name, lest itinerant

Tourist

“Hunt it and make it a lion, and get it at last into
guide-books.’

(Clough’s “ Bothie.”)
where, under such circumstances, I have seen the
Salmon and Sea Trout congregated in fabulous
quantities. Some idea of their numbers may be
gathered from the fact that in the month of July,
when they throw themselves out of the water more
than they do later in the season, I several times
tried whether I could count ten between the
appearance of any two fish, and on every occasion
was interrupted before I could get to the “ten”

88 AN ODD TRIO—DISEASE IN SALMON. [PART I.

by the splash of a Salmon. At these times they
appear to be almost regardless of the presence of
a boat, and will throw themselves out of the water
right under the oars. I found it a matter of
positive difficulty to restrain myself, when fishing
for Sea Trout, from hitting at them with my rod
as they “ walloped” up under it within four or five
feet of me. A good Sea Trout about the same
time measured his distance so badly as actually
to jump into a boat close to mine. The Sea Trout
may, when there is a slight breeze, be caught in
great numbers with the fly in this brackish water.
Salmon, however, will rarely take it there, but,
under favourable circumstances, such a thing is
by no means unknown. I believe I am correct in
saying that in this loch three Salmon (or Grilse)
were killed in one day by the same rod in the
month of June.

A friend of mine, whilst fishing for Sea Trout
in the same loch, brought up at once on his three
flies a Sea Trout, a Codling, and a Cuddy, cer-
tainly not a common occurrence.

I have been informed by people living on the
spot that Salmon, if detained for a lengthened
period in the Salt-water waiting for a “spate,”
sometimes become subject to an affection of the

CH. VI.] ARTIFICIAL SPATE. 89

head, first manifesting itself by a small white spot
on it, and subsequently producing blindness,
numbers having been known to die from this
cause. The flesh is said not to be affected by this
disease, but to remain perfectly good for the table.

A gentleman with whom I am acquainted, and
who rents a river running into the head of a loch,
in ——shire, thought it would be possible, by an
artificial spate, to induce any Salmon which might
be waiting for a natural one to ascend his river.
Accordingly he had a large dam constructed across
it, so as to head back a considerable quantity of
water. Some weeks of dry weather ensued, during
which his fishing was at a stand-still, and the
neighbouring farmers took advantage of the pool
thus. formed for the purpose of washing their
sheep, for which operation it afforded a convenient
place. At length his patience became exhausted,
and a number of Salmon having become congre-
gated at the head of the loch, he caused the sluice
of his dam to be raised, and down rushed his
spate. Instead, however, of the Salmon taking
advantage of it to ascend his river, they, disgusted
at the foulness and staleness of the water, turned
tail and retreated before it; the proof being that
on that night a large number were caught in the

90 SINGULAR CONDUCT OF SALMON. [PART I.

accursed bag-nets, which were waiting to receive
them a couple of miles below, and which had, for
some time previously, yielded comparatively little.
It is said that the Salmon have never forgotten or
forgiven this interference with the natural order
of things, and that those which now visit his river
are neither so numerous nor so large as those
which used to do so before this dodge was at-
tempted.

After Salmon have been hooked, if they have
not been very sharply struck, they will not unfre-
quently allow themselves to be drawn along for a
considerable distance—even till close to the shore
—quietly following the pull of the line, without
the slightest struggle or attempt at resistance, and
apparently quite unconscious of their danger.

I am somewhat at a loss to know how this is
to be accounted for. It can scarcely be that they
do not feel the hook, for, although a Salmon will
sometimes rise at a fly several times in succession,
and perhaps be caught after all by a judicious

1 Having given this story on the authority of some of this
gentleman’s neighbours, I am bound to add, that, from what
I have subsequently heard, I fancy they made the most of it
in the telling. As, however, I believe there is still a good deal
of truth about it, I let it stand with this reservation.

CH. VI.] “LOOK OUT FOR SQUALLS.” 91

change from dark to light, or the reverse, yet,
if he have once been touched, he will but rarely
come again the same day. I suspect they must
be fairly taken by surprise, and so puzzled by the
power thus mysteriously brought to bear on them,
as to be at first unable to make out what is the
matter, and what they had better do under the
circumstances. i

It must be admitted, however, that when they
have once made up their minds as to a course of
action, they do not lose much time. in carrying
it out; and then is the time when the fisherman
must “look out for squalls.’ For this reason,
however passive and tractable a fish may appear,
he should remain well on his guard, and ready on
the instant to adapt himself to the vagaries of the
fish, who, if a good one, will soon show him that
there is plenty of “life in the old dog yet.”

Though fully aware of this peculiarity in
Salmon, yet I very nearly lost one last season,
(1859), owing to it, under rather peculiar circum-
stances ; it being certainly more attributable to
luck than my own cunning that I ultimately suc-
ceeded in landing him.

I was fishing from a boat a loch in Ross-shire,
on a very stormy day, so rough indeed that it was

92 AN UNEXPECTED PRIZE. [PART I.

quite as much as two men could do to keep her
“head to wind,’ and had cast between two
rocks lying at some little distance from the shore,
and forming a favourite harbour for Salmon, when
amidst the breakers (as they might be well called)
I detected a slight rise. The loch was full of
small brown Trout, which always seemed most
numerous and annoying at a Salmon-cast, and I
rather thought it was one of these. Not being
quite sure however, I struck, when, feeling just
about as much resistance as one of them would
have offered, and the Gillie next me, who was on
the look-out, and whose eyes were much sharper
than mine, at the same time saying, “Oh! its just
a Brownie, Sir,” I naturally concluded such must
be the case, and, throwing my rod over my
shoulder, laid hold of the line and drew it in by
hand, as the quickest way of getting rid of the
little brute. The line came in without the slightest
strain upon it greater than a Brownie would have
caused, and it was not until I had got the fish
close to the boat and within three or four feet of
my hand, that I had the slightest suspicion I had
on anything heavier. Suddenly, however, I then
felt that it was something of more than Brownie-
weight, and had only just time, after assuring my-

CH. VI.] ALL RIGHT AT LAST. 93

self that whatever it might be, it was worth
catching, to get hold of the rod with my right
hand, than out spun the line, cutting into the
fingers of my left hand, through which I managed
to ease it, until I could bring the rod into play.
Then “whirr” went the reel, and the next instant,
at some thirty or forty yards from the boat a
Salmon of over twelve pounds flung himself—and
again—and again—out of the water. I need not
continue the story. The rest of the business,
after he had “had his fling,’ and I had got him
under command, was simple enough; the result
being that in a quarter of an hour or so we were
“wetting’” him under a sheltering rock, while the
little dog, to whom I allude at greater length else-
where, was prosecuting his usual search after

field-mice.

1 Let not the Angler at such a time be chary of the con-
tents of his flask—or of his tobacco-pouch—if his Gillies have
done their work well. His success in great measure depends
on their cheerful and active cooperation, and there is perhaps
no way more calculated to insure this than a slight largess
thus bestowed.

But—apart from any application of the principle that gra-
titude is “a lively sense of favours to come”—there is some-
thing cheery in the “wee drappie all round,” and the “ better
luck still, Sir,” which preludes the tossing off of each. Master
and men will work together all the better for it, and the
result will be all the worse for the Salmon.

CHAPTER VII.

Fishing from Steamers— Whiting near the surface—A day
in the Linnhe Loch—off the Brambles—Lady-birds at sea—
Boat-dress for bad weather—Advantages of Cape—Other
Hints as to Dress—Knickerbockers—Belt—Cap—How to
pair Gloves—Fish-taxidermy.

HE passage by the Scotch steamers along the

West coast—I am referring particularly to
those running between Glasgow and Stornoway—
though in many ways pleasant enough, is often
rendered tedious by their long stoppages at the
different halting-places, while taking in or un-
loading wool, cattle, herrings, or other goods of
which their very miscellaneous cargoes consist.
Several hours at a time are not unfrequently thus
consumed with much more profit to the Company
than satisfaction to the passengers. As, however,
many of these stoppages occur in Lochs which
abound with fish, these hours may, for want of
better occupation, be wiled away pleasantly enough
by fishing over the side. The steward generally

CH. VII.] FISHING FROM STEAMERS. 95

has a line or two on board, and will be delighted
in assisting you to catch a dish of fish for the table
by lending them. These are, however, for the
most part such make-shift things, that any one
who has a mind to utilise his time in this way
will do well to invest a shilling or two in a good
one before starting. Fish-bait is generally pro-
curable on board. I have myself had excellent
sport in this way at several places along the Coast,
particularly off Gairloch and in Little Loch Broom.
At the former place I remember creating great
excitement amongst the boats alongside, by get-
ting hold of a big Stenlock. He was so heavy
and the tackle so rotten—I was fishing with the
steward’s—that I could not venture to haul him
on board. At length one of the boatmen came to
my assistance, killed him, and fastened the line
round his gills, when he came up all right. He
weighed nearly ten pounds.

Although Whiting are generally taken near the
bottom, yet it is a mistake to suppose that they
never leave it; for they not only have the power
of coming to the surface, but in fact not unfre-
quently do so, or to within a short distance of it,
when in pursuit of small fry. I know of two in-
stances in which they have been caught by a kill-

96 WHITING NEAR THE SURFACE. [PART I.

devil trailed from the stern of a rowing boat off
Guernsey—where, by the way, first-rate sea-fishing
is to be had—and I myself had satisfactory proof
of the fact whilst fishing in the Linnhe Loch off
Ardsheal. On that occasion we were pulling up
Whiting so fast, that, my line becoming kinked,
I, in order to save time, put my bait overboard
to be all ready when the boatman should have
cleared the knot. My line could not thus have
reached above a third of the way to the bottom,
when, to my surprise, I felt a tug. I struck and
pulled away, bringing up two fine Whiting. Pro-
fiting by this experience I did not afterwards
waste time by allowing my bait to sink much
lower, and found consequently that our heap of
fish grew much more rapidly under my contri-
butions than those of my friends who adhered to
the orthodox mode of fishing at the bottom. Our
sport that day was, while it lasted, as good as I
ever had. There were three of us, besides the
boatmen, whose time was pretty well taken up
with attending to lines. We started very late and
with appearances much against us, the only pro-
curable bait being seven herrings in such an ad-
vanced state of decomposition that we were too
glad to avoid getting them between the wind and.

‘CH. VII.] | HERRINGS TAKEN WITH BAIT. 97

our nobility. In fact they were so bad that we
had serious doubts whether it was worth while
to attempt fishing with them at all. However, our
spirit of enterprise prevailed over our doubts, and
we concluded to try our luck. The first omen of
our success was a Herring, which was caught with
a piece of one of his putrid predecessors, almost
as soon as we commenced fishing. I need hardly
say that the new-comer’s appearance was hailed
with a shout of welcome, and that, in a trice,
bright strips from his sides were doing duty upon
all the available hooks.

* At length they caught two boobies and a noddy,
And then they left off eating the dead body.”

After this god-send we began catching fish in
earnest, and were, in fact, as hotly engaged in
hauling in, baiting and letting down again as could
well be, until, remembering that, the ladies would
be waiting dinner for us, we unwillingly wound up
our lines, having then been fishing only about a
couple of hours, and pulled homewards.

It is very unusual for Herrings to be taken with
bait, but that which first gave us our real start,
was not the only one which we caught that day,
no less than eight others having been, one after
another, brought on board and converted into bait.

H

98 FISHING OFF THE BRAMBLES. [PART I.

Besides Herrings however we were plentifully
supplied with other bait, in the shape of small
Herring-fry about the size of White Bait, with
which many (most I may say) of the Whiting
were perfectly gorged. The number of fish we
brought home was (exclusive of those used as bait)
three hundred and seven, weighing a hundred and
sixty-one pounds, chiefly Whiting, but comprising,
amongst a few other varieties, a Cod of sixteen,
and a Skate of about seven or eight pounds. The
Cod was caught on a Whiting which had taken
the bait, and came up alive in his mouth. The
feeling of relief, when we found we might dispense
with our first unsavoury lot of Herrings, to which
we had resigned ourselves as our only chance of
success, and got them well overboard, was, it may
be conceived, not inconsiderable.

The best day’s sea-fishing that I ever had in the
South of England was towards the end of August,
near the West buoy of the Brambles, not far from
the mouth of the Southampton river, when, in one
tide, or, (to speak more correctly, part of two tides),
two other lines and my own, assisted occasionally
by those of a couple of boatmen, caught twenty-
five dozen and eight Whiting (singularly enough,
the same number within one as that mentioned

CH. VII.] LADY-BIRDS AT SEA. 99

on the last occasion), besides some other fish. On
the previous day we had caught exactly half the
number, twelve dozen and ten. The fish bit most
freely when the tide ran so hotly that we could
scarcely “hold bottom,’ and they came whirling
up against the current two at a time as if they
were spinining-baits that we were using for larger
fish.

On that day I noticed vast numbers of Lady-
birds drifting along by us with the tide to the
eastward as we lay at anchor. Where they had
come from, or where they were going to when they
fell into the water, it is not very easy to conjec-
ture. There was no wind where we were, and the
actual surface of the sea was of an oily stillness:
a long swell was, however, plainly discernible, prov-
ing that at no great distance there had been a
good deal of wind, which might have driven them
off shore, or, what is more probable, caught them
whilst in the act of changing their quarters en
masse and beaten them down into the sea.

The best dress that I know for boat-work in
wet weather consists of a pair of macintosh over-
halls made to tie round the waist, a light cape of
the same material, about thirty inches long, and
an oil-skin wide-awake. The overalls should be

‘HW 2

100 BOAT-DRESS FOR BAD WEATHER. [PART I.

sufficiently large to enable you to put the skirts
of your shooting-coat bodily into them, by which
means, while you have access to your upper pock-
ets, the lower ones will be kept dry and you will
be perfectly impermeable to wet, there being no-
thing about you to catch the rain.

The overalls are most useful at all times in
sea-fishing, as they afford complete protection fore
and aft, and enable you to haul in line and fish
without getting your knees wet, as well as to sit
down in comfort wherever you please, no matter
what the state of the boat may be.

Of course it does not much matter for boat-
work what the length of the cape is. I mention
thirty inches, because I have found such a one
most useful on shore, as well as on the-water, for
shooting of all kinds, or other fishing. If you have
no one at hand to carry it when not wanted, its
weight is but little felt in your inner coat-pocket,
or, what is better, it can be rolled up and fastened
by a couple of little straps or strings to the strap
of your shot-bag or fishing-basket, in which posi-
tion you are really scarcely sensible of its presence.
It will save you many a wet jacket, and the annoy-
ance of getting all the things in your pockets
drenched and perhaps spoiled. I scarcely know

CH. VII.] CAPE—KNICK ERBOCKERS. 101

anything more aggravating than, when turning
homewards after your work is done, and you are
longing for a quiet pipe, to find that your matches
are all saturated and no light is procurable. While
actually shooting, the cape will be found surpris-
ingly little in the way, it being easy to dispose it,
so that, while your locks are protected, you can
instantly throw it aside sufficiently to shoot with
ease. When going up to a point, you can, if you
please, throw it quite back off the right shoulder.
The only thing against it, that I know, is that in
a high wind it is apt to get blown up over your
head, but this is easily obviated by having a but-
ton sewn on inside it at the bottom, and a corre-
sponding button-hole in the middle back-seam of
your shooting-coat.

While on the subject of dress, I will just say a
word as to one or two other points. By far the
best leg-coverings for walking in an open country
are, I think, knickerbockers. These are gene-
rally made to buckle at the knee, so that they
cannot be worn otherwise. I rather prefer how-
ever, for grouse-shooting, to have them simply cut
quite loose, so as to hang about six or eight inches
below the knee, with strings run through the
bottoms to tie on the inside, and a slit, also in the

102 BELT—CAP. [PART I.

inside, extending a little above the knee. When
on comparatively level ground, if the material of
which they are made is moderately light, I find it
rather cooler and pleasanter to leave them hanging
down, with the strings just tied loosely. On com-
ing to any really hard work in the way of steep
ground, when it becomes necessary to bend the
knee much, they can be in a moment drawn up
over the calf, and tied tightly so as to prevent
them from slipping. The slits should on no ac-
count be made outside, or the midges and “clegs ”
(horse-flies) will make your life a burthen to
you.

An elastic belt round the waist is infinitely
preferable to braces. It should be tolerably broad,
and fastened by a buckle, not a clasp, so that you
can let out a reef when you like. Very good ones
are made by Weatherhead, of 27 Panton Street,
Haymarket.

The best kind of cap that I know for sea-fishing
or deer-stalking—having its origin, I believe, at
Scatwell, in Ross-shire—is very simply made as
follows. The crown consists of four pieces coming
to a point at the top, and fitting closely to the
head. Before and behind there are peaks to pro-
tect eyes and neck, and on either side, springing

CH. VII.] TO PAIR GLOVES—FISH-TAXIDERMY. 103

from the extremities of the peaks, a lappet, one
furnished with a loop, the other with a button, and
made long enough just to fasten over the head, or
under the chin, at pleasure, forming in the latter
position a covering for the ears, which those who
have, when after deer, lain for hours on the hill-
side, waiting for the mist to clear off, will readily
appreciate. It should be made, I need hardly say,
of some unobtrusive-coloured woollen stuff.

It is a remarkable fact, that, although you may
have put by your old gloves in pairs against the
next shooting-season, you will not unfrequently
find your stock, when you come to use them, to
consist almost entirely of left-hand gloves. Whe-
ther this may arise from the fact that housemaids
generally clean the grates with the right hand, and
like to keep that clean also, we need not inquire;
I would only suggest to any one who may find
himself with two odd gloves in his pocket, not to
“cuss and swear,” but just turn one of them inside
out, when he will have a pair that will do to shoot
in, at any rate.

Judging from the miserable failures which con-
stantly offend the eye, it would appear that the
art of stuffing fish is one in which it is very
difficult to attain to a result at all approaching

104 FISH-TAXIDERMY. [PART I.

perfection. So-called preserved specimens are
almost invariably stuck straight up in the mid-
dle of their cases—fins and tail stretched to the
utmost possible limits—eyes, the largest that can
be forced into the sockets, and guiltless of any
attempt at speculation—body often stuffed out like
a “rolly-polly” pudding, and the colour generally
toned down to a rich deep mahogany: all this too
very frequently without the slightest accessories
of weed or stones to relieve the barren dreariness
of the case.

Conceive a portrait-painter representing his
subject as standing, without fore or back-ground,
“straight to the front,’ staring before him on
vacancy with distended eyelids, his legs as wide
apart as possible, his arms extended at right
angles to his body, and the whole coloured 4 la
Mulatio. Such a portrait would be deservedly
treated as a caricature: yet it would probably
convey about as faithful an idea of the man, as
the other of the fish. It may not be easy to give
much expression to the eye, but surely our Taxi-
dermists, by devoting a little more attention to
this branch of their art, might succeed in generally
investing their fish with more life, truth, and cha-
racter.

CH. V1I.] FISH-TAXIDERMY—THAMES-TROUT. 105

It is now quite a matter for condolence to see
a fish on whose perfect condition and lovely colour
you gazed with fond admiration, as he lay on the
bank your prize after a well-fought battle, trans-
formed into the wretched Mummy which he too
often appears when returned to you from the
hands of the Stuffer to whom you had, not without
a feeling of pardonable pride, entrusted him.

The two points which seem to present the
greatest difficulties in the preservation of fish are,
the tendency of the skin to shrink and get out of
shape, and to lose its colour and become dark.
The specimen in which, to my mind, these ob-
stacles have been most successfully surmounted,
is to be seen in the shop-window of a worthy
fishing-tackle maker, Roblow, of 30 Upper Mary-
lebone Street, Portland Place, being that of a
Trout (fourteen pounds weight, he tells me),
caught at Teddington Weir in 1846. It must
have been a “perfect picture” of a Thames Trout,
and well deserves a visit.

CHAPTER VIII.

Spearing Flat-jfish—Have Flat-fish the power of changing
colour at will ?—Spearing ditto off Ryde—Nest of Stickle-

back— Deceptive appearance of Fish in water—Instances
—of Jack—of Trout.

HERE is worse sport than spearing Flat-fish,
~~ “fluking,”’ as it is called in the South of
England, which in sandy estuaries (the favourite
resorts of these fish) may often be practised with
considerable success. A four or five-pronged
spear is the best for the purpose. The prongs
should be about three inches apart, and barbed
on one side, and the cross-piece, to which they
are affixed, attached to a light tough pole just
long enough to admit of easy use in the water you
are fishing. The simplest and best mode of
working this is, when practicable, to allow your
boat to drift down with the tide, “broadside on,”
while you spear away at random, or, when the
water is sufficiently clear and shallow to admit of
your doing so, reserve your fire until you see a

CH. VIII.] SPEARING FLAT-FISH. 107

fish to take a shot at. Great numbers may be
caught in this way near the mouths of some of the
Devonshire rivers, amongst which I may mention
the Erme and Teign, as being extremely well
adapted for the purpose, and affording abundance
of Flat-fish.

When a boy, at a private tutor’s not far from
the former, I used with a spear which I kept
hidden in some gorse near our bathing-place and
took into the water with me—perhaps up to my
breast or chin in it—to pick up a great many. I
remember on one occasion striking and securing
three at once. My plan for getting a good one off
the spear, as its barbs were not in first-rate
working order, was to insinuate my foot under the
fish, and getting a toe on each side of the prong
on which he was, to raise up foot and all until I
could reach it with my hand, and take him off,
when I pitched him on shore to wait until I came
out.

Hugh Miller, in that very entertaining book
of his, My Schools and Schoolmasters, asserts that
Flat-fish have the power of changing their colour
at will, making it accord with that of the bottom
on which they may happen to be lying. He,
alas! poor fellow, is no longer among us to throw

108 CAN FLAT-FISH CHANGE COLOUR AT WILL? [PARTI

additional light on the subject from his own ex-
perience, and I hesitate to express an opinion at
variance with that of so accurate an observer of
nature. I cannot however but fancy that in this
instance he may have been deceived by appear-
ances. Undoubtedly the Flat-fish does apparently
assume the colour of the bottom on which he rests,
but, so far as my observation’ extends, this is only
because, the moment that he halts, by a motion of
his fins and tail so rapid as to be almost imper-
ceptible, he throws up over his back some of the
surrounding sand, working himself down as he
does it to a lower level. He thus becomes in a
wonderfully short space of time almost invisible
to an unpractised eye, and might easily be sup-
posed actually to have changed colour.

I do not, of course, go the length of saying
that Flat-fish do not 7m time become assimilated
in colour to that of the bottom on which they
generally lie. On the contrary, knowing that
other fish—Trout for instance—do so, a fact which
cannot but have forced itself on the notice of every
angler, I should have been much surprised had
T found that this property was not participated in
by Flat-fish. My observations merely extend to
their supposed power of changing colour aé will.

CH. VIII.] SPEARING FLAT-FISH OFF RYDE. 109

T used, when a boy, to have very good oppor-
tunities of observing this expedient of theirs to
escape detection; it being one of my favourite
amusements, when the tide served —low-water
spring-tide was the best time—to start very early
in the morning, accompanied by the garden-boy,
each of us provided with a two-pronged steel fork,
elaborately sharpened, and a basket, to the sands
near Ryde, where in the pools left by the sea we
used to find and spear (or rather fork) a good
many stragglers, with now and then an Eel, who
had also forgotten himself, and been left behind
by the tide. The Flat-fish we were obliged to
approach with care, stalk them, as it were; but
when an Eel was started, we had to “chevy” him
to his harbour amongst the stones, where with
care in due time we generally managed to fork
him. Our best morning’s work, if I remember
right, consisted of seventy-five Flat-fish, and six
Eels, besides a lot of Cockles, with which, as we
outstayed breakfast-time, we did not disdain to
amuse ourselves on the road homewards, they
being not at all unpalatable to a hungry boy, and
easily opened, an office which one shell kindly per-
forms for another by the following very simple
process :—Two of them are placed dos & dos with

110 NESTS OF STICKLEBACK. [PART I.

the hinges fitting into each other crosswise. You
then give them a twist, when the weaker, as is the
way of the world, gives way to the stronger, and
his delicate, yellow, hooked form, “the soul of his
beauty and love lies bare,” exposed to your tender
mercies. Though I dare say many of the Flat-fish
were not very large, yet some of them were really
of a very respectable size, being nearly as large
as soup-plates: the Eels were not remarkable for
their proportions. However the whole made up
a basket of fish which I was uncommonly proud of,
and, I think, contributed a little to propitiate the
authorities, from whom, as it was, I got a very
decided “wigging” for my audacious conduct in
making my appearance some three hours after I
ought to have been at my lessons.

IT used, on these occasions, to notice with much
interest the nests of the Stickleback, which were
far from uncommon in the pools where we found
our Flat-fish. They were almost invariably form-
ed by oyster, or other flat shells, the large ends
of which were slightly raised above the sand, and
presented generally so uniformly similar an ap-
pearance, that I scarcely ever failed to detect one
of them among a number of ordinary shells in the
vicinity, my suspicions being very frequently con-

CH. VIII.] APPEARANCE OF FISH IN WATER. 111

firmed by finding the parent fish at home, taking
charge of her eggs, which were deposited under it.

It is difficult for any one to judge accurately of
the weight of fish in water, but persons unaccus-
tomed to see them there are liable to be greatly
deceived with regard to them, as on shallows they
are apt to appear larger than they really are; in
deep water, on the other hand, generally smaller.

TI was considerably taken in by a mistake of
this kind last spring (1858) whilst fishing a part
of the Stour, below Iford, where I knew there was
a very large Jack, having seen another of about
two pounds, which had been picked up dead there,
marked with the scores of enormous teeth, shew-
ing that he must have been gripped by a monster.
Opposite to me was a high bank, from which a
man, who happened to be standing there, could
see all that was going on below him, whilst I, from
my lower position, nearly on a level with the water,
and the direction of the sun, which was in my face,
could see comparatively nothing, not even where
the beds of weeds lay, at any distance from the
bank from which I was fishing. All of a sudden
he called out, “There are two fish at the tail of
they weeds there, and one of em’s a tremendious
beost.” I asked him whereabouts they were, and

112 JACK AT IFORD. [PART I.

threw gradually up in the direction he pointed
out to me. After two or three throws I suc-
ceeded in hitting the place and moving the big
one. “He’s coming, Sir,’ said he. “No: he’s
left it again. My G— what a fish! there, he’s at
least three foot long,” and several times he re-
peated the same thing, saying that he could see
him distinctly, and that he was “at the very least
three foot long.” Of course I concluded that this
was the big fish, and was proportionably anxious
to get him. Several times I threw “just right for
him” (the man said), and once or twice he lazily
followed the bait, returning after each such feint
to his former position. -By this time my bait was
getting very much the worse for wear, and the
reserve was in the boat, a good way up the river.
However, at last, seeing that he really seemed too
indolent to follow the bait, I thought I would
humour him, and see whether he would take it,
if it waited for him. Accordingly the next time
he came at it, I stopped it entirely. This attention
was too delicate for him: he could not resist it,—
and, without a pull or an effort, just closed his
mouth upon it. “He’s got it, Sir,” shouted my
fugleman; “Well, you have got a fish now.” I
“jabbered it into him,” and feeling that it was

CH. VIII. | “‘ PARTURIUNT MONTES, NASCETUR &c.” 113

“all right,” shouted for the fisherman to come
down with the gaff from the boat where he was
in attendance on a friend. I soon found, with
some disappointment, that I had not so much
to contend against as I expected, and asked the
man on the bank, who was still anxiously watch-
ing my proceedings, whether he was quite certain
it was the big fish that I had got hold of. He
answered that there was no doubt at all about it,
and I still hoped against my better judgment,
but was soon disgusted at finding that I was
right, when the fish, on being gaffed, turned out
to be only five pounds and a half, instead of some
twenty-five, which he ought at least to have been,
had his length been really that which it was re-
presented to be. The man could scarcely believe
his eyes when the fish came out of the water, nor
understand how he could have been so egregiously
mistaken’.

Something of the same kind (though indeed
in this instance the fish was judged of the same
weight out of the water as in it) occurred to me

1 Since this was written, a Jack of thirty-eight pounds
was caught with a live bait this spring (1859) in the exact part
of the river referred to. This was, I have no doubt, the very

fish that I was trying for, and the marks of whose teeth I had
seen in the smaller Jack.

I

114 TROUT AT CARSHALTON. [PART 1.

some years ago near Carshalton. I had permission
to fish from several of the proprietors there, and
was told there was no doubt that, if I called upon
a Captain D. (who had some fishing), and sent in
my card, he would also give me leave. I conse-
quently started, rod in hand, to do so, but found
that he was not at home, though shortly expected.
Whilst awaiting his return, my attention was at-
tracted by a small piece of the river running down
through the garden of a worthy tobacco-merchant.
I had not then a notion who lived there, but
thought that nothing would, at any rate, be lost
by asking for leave to have a cast or two en
attendant. Accordingly I went in, and knocked
at the door. It was opened by the butler, who
told me his master was out, but that he could take
upon himself to say that he would have great
pleasure in permitting me to fish, and that I might
certainly do so. I did not wait for more, but,
with many thanks, best compliments to his master,
and all that sort of thing, commenced putting my
tackle together. Some men were at work engaged
in mowing the meadow next the house, and as soon
as one of these fellows, an Irishman, saw me thus
occupied, he came running across the field to me,
saying that in the morning he had seen a splen-

CH. VIII.] NOT QUITE SUCH AN IMPOSTOR. 115

did Trout lying under “thim bushes” which he
“knowed” was not under five pounds. Well, I
set to work, and almost the very first throw I had
him, raising him in the exact spot which had been
pointed out to me. The gardener came to my
assistance with an extraordinary machine used for
dredging up gravel, or something of the kind (for
T had not a net with me), and between us we land-
ed him. No sooner was he on the bank, than my
friend the Irishman came running up again in a
state of the greatest delight, dancing round him,
and exclaiming, “Arragh now! didn’t I tell your
Honour he was over five pounds?” The steelyard
however returned him as only three and a quarter,
but he certainly was one of the most beautiful and
perfectly fed fish I ever saw. I was so proud of
him, that I really could not make up my mind
to give him to the gentleman, who had, through
his butler, so kindly given me the opportunity of
catching him, as I doubtless ought to have done;
and hope that he will, though somewhat late, ac-
cept my best thanks for his courtesy, and this
expression of my regret that I was induced to
treat him so scurvily.

12

CHAPTER IX.

Ember-cooking Fish—Fishing in Glen Garry—Big Salmo
Jerox—A Fisher-dog.

HERE is a way of dressing fish, which may be

resorted to by the side of the water with
pleasure (and not without advantage should your
stock of provisions run short) during the middle
of the day, when fish do not generally feed so
freely as at other times, and when your sport is
often improved by giving them, as well as your-
self, a rest. It is managed as follows :—first collect
a lot of small dry wood and set it on fire;—when
a sufficient quantity of ashes has been thus ob-
tained, which will be soon done, take a sheet of
paper (an old newspaper will do) and wet it
thoroughly: shake the drops off it, and then, filling
the mouth of your fish with salt, wrap him up in it
just as he is, uncleaned, “simplex dmmunditiis,”
and digging a grave for him in your ash-heap, put
him bodily into it, covering him well up afterwards

CH. Ix.] EMBER-COOKING FISH. 117

with the hot ashes. When you think he ought to
be done, allowing from ten minutes to a quarter of
an hour according to his size, partially uncover him
and tear off a small piece of his winding-sheet. If
his skin comes off with it, he is sufficiently done,
and out with him. Should however the paper
come off minus the skin, cover him up again, and
give him a little more law, until this test shows
him to be perfectly done. On being turned out
of his envelope, the whole of his skin should ad-
here to it. As for his inside, you may disregard
it altogether, or opening him, turn it out, which
you will find there is not the slightest difficulty
in doing en masse. Pepper and salt him, if you
have such condiments by you, and you will only
be sorry that your own kitchen does not afford
you the means of dressing your fish thus at home’.

This plan was shewn me a year or two ago by a
gillie on the shores of Loch Garry, the waters from
which flow down the Garry to Loch Oich, the cen-
tral one of the chain forming the Caledonian Canal,

1 J observe that this mode of dressing fish has already been
described by Mr Stoddart in his Angler’s Companion. As,
however, it is possible that these Notes and his excellent
work may fall under the notice of different readers, and the
“wrinkle” is one worthy of being widely disseminated, I ven-
ture to let it stand as I have written it.

118 FISHING IN GLEN GARRY. [PART I.

and thence diverging East and West find their
way to the German and Atlantic Oceans. The
river, deriving its supplies from the contributions
of several streams rising in the neighbourhood of
Glen Coich, runs, before reaching Loch Garry, with
no inconsiderable volume through two other lochs,
by name Polery and Kingie, broadening out here
and there during the rest of its course into large
deep pools, of which I may mention one particu-
larly, called “The Black Pool.’ The river, down
to its efflux from Loch Garry—as well as the lochs
through which it ruans—abounds with Brown Trout,
those in the lochs averaging about a third of a
pound ;—those in the stream, and particularly high
up, above Loch Kingie, vary more in weight, many
being smaller, but many also running to a much
larger size. The lochs are celebrated as contain-
ing Great Lake Trout (Salmo jferox) which not
unfrequently attain to a great weight there. It
was for the purpose of trying my luck at these
big fellows, that I went with a friend, in July,
1856, to Tomdoun, Tomindoun, or Tomadoun (the
name is thus indifferently written, not an unfre-
quent occurrence in the Highlands, where they
are not very particular about their spelling), a com-
fortable road-side inn, about five hundred yards

CH. Ix.] TRAILING FOR SALMO FEROX. 119

from the river, and some three miles above Loch
Garry, kept by Mr Robinson, a worthy man, who,
as well as his wife, does all that he can to promote
the comfort of his guests, and told me “he liked
to see gentlemen have their sport satisfactory and
peaceable.” It was somewhat too late in the year,
we were told, for much sport to be expected, so
far as the Lake Trout were concerned; but under
the auspices of John Cameron, whom we had
brought with us from Invergarry—a very handy
and decent fellow, and withal so fond of fishing
that he has earned for himself the soubriquet of
“The Cormorant”—we determined to have a trial
at all events. We accordingly set to work trailing
in the lochs (using simple spinning-tackle like that
described in page 9 et seg.) witha parr or small trout
for bait, and having a line (about thirty or forty
yards) out on either side of the stern, whilst the
boat was rowed slowly up and down over the most
likely parts of the water. It seemed at first that
the fears which had been expressed with refer-
ence to the lateness of the season were likely to
prove correct, for during the first two days the
result of our trailing was only some four or five
dozen Brown Trout, running from about a quarter
of a pound to a pound and a half. As this was

120 SPINNING—LOSE A GOOD ONE. [PART I.

not very livély work, I used in the mornings, be-
fore we started together for the regular business
of the day, to vary the sport by fly-fishing, or
spinning from the shore with a small bait, or kill-
devil, the pools below the house, picking up thus:
a good many Trout, including some nice ones of
from one to two pounds.

Those parts at the heads and tails of the lochs,
where the water was too confined or shallow for
trailing, I used to spin over by casting out of the
boat in the usual way, a plan which I found answer
very well. On one occasion, at the tail of Loch
Polery, in which we had been trailing, we saw
a Salmon leap, as they not unfrequently do when
they have surmounted the difficulties of the up-
ward navigation, and find themselves in still water.
Having my line all ready (with a gutta-percha
kill-devil on, as it happened), I threw over the
place where he had shewn himself. The bait was
instantly taken, as I conceived of course, by the
same fish, and away he went with it. Had all
been clear, I have no doubt I could have killed
him, but, unluckily, the outlet into the shallow
broken water, into which we could not have
followed him, was so near, and he shewed such
an evident inclination to make for it, that I was

CH. IX.] OCCASIONAL FLY-FISHING. 121

obliged to employ greater force than I should
otherwise have done, in order to try to turn his
head away from it. At first I thought I should
have succeeded, but unfortunately the hold gave,
and I had the mortification of seeing him execute
a preliminary flourish of derision, throwing him-
self out of the water, and exhibiting his full size,
that of at least a twelve-pounder, as he surged
off to look for quieter quarters. It is somewhat
remarkable, that this fish, as my friend and J.
Cameron both positively declared, was not the
Salmon which had shewn himself just before, but
a Salmo ferox. My own sight is not sufficiently
good to enable me to express a decided opinion,
but my impression is that they were right, and that
the fish was a different one, being larger, and
darker-coloured. Besides the spinning-rod, I al-
ways had a fly-rod at hand in the boat, with
which I used to catch a good number of brown
Trout in the runs at odd times. Just above Loch
Kingie, for instance, I remember catching in a
very short time about three dozen, one of them
being two pounds and a quarter, a very bonnie
fish. The greater part of these I caught just at
the head of Loch Kingie, wading in with only a
shirt on, tucked up pretty high, when, what with

122 BEGINNING TO DESPAIR. [PART I.

killing “clegs” (horse-flies), the number of which
was only equalled by their determination and
ferocity, and getting in my fish, my hands were
pretty well occupied.

We had been thus engaged for the best part
of four days, leading pleasant lives enough, though
the weather was somewhat unfavourable, but on
the whole beginning to despair of getting hold of
one of the big fellows. On the afternoon of the
fourth day we halted in a wooded bay on the West
shore of Loch Garry, a delightfully pretty and shel-
tered spot, where, whilst we lounged away the hour
we did not then so much grudge for luncheon,
John Cameron practically explained the mysteries
of ember-cooking fish, which I have before men-
tioned, a couple of Trout of about a pound each
serving as subjects for the lecture. Luncheon
over, before yielding myself to that pipe of pipes
which succeeds such a repast, perhaps the highest
state of pure physical enjoyment of which man is
susceptible, I took stock of my remaining spinning
tackle. I then found it had suffered so much from
the nibbling of the small Trout, that the flight of
hooks I had up was the only one of the proper
size left, and, to make matters worse, the single
gut attached to this was frayed half in two

CH. 1X.] HOLD OF HIM AT LAST. 123

close by the lip-hook. However, as we had not
had a run from a big fish in trailing, and it was
getting late, I thought I would just take the
chance, and continue fishing with it. At length,
after we had been long, over-long, stretched on
the heather, watching the smoke of our pipes, as
it curled up among the birch-trees to the blue over-
head, each awaiting from the other the unwelcome
signal for a move, our eyes met, and the fact that
it was time to be at work again was tacitly but
mutually acknowledged. He has some pleasant
reminiscences, who can look back to many half-
hours of such unmixed tranquil enjoyment as that
which I, at least, experienced before the sense of
duty prevailed, and we forced ourselves away for
a fresh start. Having rebaited our hooks with
small trout, we now pulled over to the opposite
side of the loch, and had only taken one or two
turns up and down the likely part of it, when
about half-past six I felt a tug from what I soon
found was very different from anything that I had
had on before, and away he went with the bait,—
away—away—straight from the stern of the boat,
as if there was to be no end to his going. I im-
mediately sung out to Cameron to back the boat
after him, but before he could get any way upon

124 RUNNING IT RATHER CLOSE. [PART I.

her, she being a heavy square-sterned coble, the
fish had run out the whole of my line, nearly a
hundred yards, with the exception of one turn
cand a half round the reel. I had been giving it
to him more and more reluctantly for some time,
though, knowing the state of my gut, I did not
dare to put any strain upon it, and was all ready,
if he persisted, to let him have rod and all, by
throwing it into the water, as soon as the line was
exhausted. However, at last, I ventured on just
as much gently persuasive force as I thought my
trace would bear, and the move fortunately suc-
ceeded. Back he turned, and away he came again,
straight for the boat, much faster than I could
wind up, though Cameron backed me by pulling
his best. Of course the line became perfectly
slack, and I had made up my mind he was off,
when a gradual tightening of it told me, to my
relief, that he was still all right, and in a few
seconds more I had him under command again.
This second pull he resented by another tremen-
dous rush in the direction he had at first taken,
and again he ran out almost the whole of my line.
As I had however by this time to some extent
“taken his measure,” and he was not quite so
fresh as he was at first, I ventured to check him

CH.IX.] GET ON BETTER TERMS WITH HIM. 125

a little sooner, with a view of getting him some-
what better in hand. Three or four such deter-
mined rushes he made, only gradually relaxing in
his efforts, and returning after each in a manner
which was anything but pleasant at the time.
Every now and then he would shew his head above
water as he came up to have a look round, when
Cameron greeted it with “God bless me, what n’a
head!” Then would follow in due succession his
dorsal fin and tail as he turned over to go below
again. Cameron’s excitement was too great for
any variety in his expletives. It was always, “God
bless me, what n’a back-fin a got!” “God bless
me, what n’a tail!” After playing him for about
half-an-hour, he gradually became less and less
disinclined to listen to reason, and we set about
finding a place to land him in. We looked at two
or three as we coasted quietly along, but there
were always rocks or something in the way, which
made them objectionable, and at last we paddled
across, as fast as the fish would follow, to a small
island, the shore of which was smooth, and rose
gradually to the water's edge, near the head of
the loch. Here Cameron ran the boat up, and
I carefully jumped on shore. The ground was all
clear, and I took the fish up to a convenient spot

126 “GOD BLESS ME, WHAT N’A FISH!” [PART I.

away from the boat, and brought him quietly up
into shallow water, when John Cameron waded in
round him, and, getting his hands well under his
gills, hauled him bodily out, and with a “God
bless me, what n’a fish!” brought him on shore in
his arms. I had entreated him to employ the gaff,
but he seemed so uncertain as to its use, and so
confident of being able to do it in his own way,
that I let him “gang his ain gait.’ The fish pro-
ved to be a magnificent male Salmo jferox, which
our steelyards agreed in returning about two
ounces under twenty pounds. His dimensions
were,—length, two feet eight inches and three-
quarters; girth, one foot ten inches and a half.
Anything like his condition I never saw, but it
may be judged of by the fact that he was com-
pared by the first three people we met, to a pig,
a whale, and a pair of bellows.

On looking to see how he had been hooked,
I found that the lower part of the flight of hooks
had caught him in the side of the mouth, but that
the lip-hook had also, no doubt as he went away
in one of his long rushes, got fast in one of his
gill-covers, behind the eye. Thus I had through-
out been labouring under the disadvantage of
having a cross-pull on him, which, coupled with

CH.IX.] | ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. 127

the defective state of my gut, the fault in which
was just at that critical place, made it a mat-
ter of wonder that I ever succeeded in land-
ing him. Possibly however the effect of this
cross-pull may have been advantageous in pre-
venting him from leaping, had he done which, I
think we must, in all probability, have parted
company.

I should mention that, though there are one
or two boats, such as they are, on Loch Garry and
Loch Polery, and those lochs, with the part of the
river between Loch Kingie and Loch Garry, may
be fished by any one staying at Tomdoun ; yet a
boat cannot be got upon Loch Kingie (in which
the Salmo ferox is said to be more numerous
than in either of the other lochs) without the ex-
press leave of Mr Ellice of Glen Coich, who how-
ever, I believe, obligingly permits rod-fishing from
the shore. When we were there, Mr Ellice was
absent from home, and his keeper, who had been
at some trouble to get the deer down near the
loch, feared that bringing a boat across might
disturb them, so we left Loch Kingie without
giving it a fair trial, for though it is compara-
tively small, and very deep towards the centre,
yet as it is rather shallow and weedy on one

128 A FISHER-DOG. [PART I.

side, and awkward to get at on the other, it is
almost useless to attempt spinning it from the
shore.

A shooting-lodge, which I occupied with some
friends for'a couple of seasons close to a sea-loch,
in Ross-shire, has been mentioned elsewhere in
these pages. One of the principal dependents (in
his own estimation) attached to it was a stocky
little yellow terrier, not smooth, nor of the shag-
giest, but of a kind of intermediate roughness,
whose two chief personal characteristics were a sin-
gular bunch of light yellow hair, about an inch
and a half long, projecting from the outer corner
of each eye, which gave him a very grotesque
appearance ; and the determination with which,
never keeping more than three legs in work at
the same time (as is the habit of such dogs) he
changed from one hind leg to the other at every
two steps when on the march.

Although he took a great interest in all field-
sports in which he had an opportunity of joining,
yet fishing was the one which possessed for him
the most particular attractions, and in which he
principally excelled. His proper owner, who
resided at a considerable distance, had formerly
lent him to the keeper, when, having once tasted

CH.IX.] FISHER-DOG OUT SALMON-FISHING. 129

the delights of a free piscatorial life, he could not
only not be induced to return, but, if taken home
to his master, soon found his way back to the
quarters where he could enjoy his favourite sport
ad libitum. It mattered very little to him what
kind of fishing was the order of the day, so long
as he was permitted to take a part in it. He soon
found out what it was to be, whether up the river
for Salmon, or down the loch for sea-fish, and
was always the first on the road towards the river,
or in the boat when sea-fishing was determined
on, as the case might be. Many a rough day he
had of it—sitting in the bow or stern-sheets,
wherever there happened to be room for him—
drenched with rain and spray, and perhaps half
frozen by a biting wind. But all this was endured,
just as his human friends endured it, for the sake
of the sport, which seemed to make up for all
discomforts. Great was his excitement when a
Salmon was hooked, and profound the attention
with which (head on one side and ears cocked) he
watched all the subsequent proceedings—the Sal-
mon’s rushes—his leaps—his gradual approach to
the shore—perhaps an unsuccessful attempt to
gaff him (for the gillies there were not very cer-

tain hands at the work), until at length the crown-
K

130 FISHER-DOG OUT SEA-FISHING. [PART I.

ing effort was made, and the fish landed safely on
terra firma. He was then a proud and a happy
dog. He had done his work well in his own
opinion, and evidently considered himself to be
off duty for a time, and entitled, in common with
ourselves, to take a rest and divert himself, which,
after inspecting the fish, and superintending the
process of weighing it, he accordingly set about
doing in his own way, that is, instead of smoking
a pipe over it as we did, he, after a preliminary
stretch and roll on the heather, took out his relax-
ation in a hunt (not however often attended with
much success) after field-mice.

Of sea-fishing too he was very fond, and, when
hand-lines were employed, would look over the
side as a line was hauled in, and await the appear-
ance of the up-coming fish with the keenest inter-
est. The method I have elsewhere described of
trailing with a number of flies on the same line he
never seemed thoroughly to understand, appar-
ently considering that one, or at the most two, fish
at a time was as much as could possibly be ex-
pected, and when a string of about a dozen came
in one after the other, he got into a state of per-
fectly bewildered excitement.

But what he peculiarly delighted in was fishing

CH.IX.] FISHING ON HIS OWN ACCOUNT. 131

on his own account. The fish required for the
consumption of the house were cleaned and
washed in the sea-loch opposite to it; and,
attracted by the offal which resulted from that
process, large Cod used constantly to come in, two
and three at a time, coasting quietly along, and
venturing close to the shore, where there was
scarcely depth of water to cover them, almost
regardless of the presence of bystanders. Here
of an evening, after we had done our day’s work,
our friend used to take his stand, perhaps occupy-
ing a commanding position on one of the stepping-
stones which formed a rough pier for the purpose
of embarkation, on the look-out for the Cod. Al-
though he generally saw them when they were at
some little distance from the shore, yet, if they
seemed to be coming pretty straight towards him,
he rarely made any demonstration until they were
well within reach and he had a fair chance at
them. Then in he went with a rush. There was
a tussle, a diving, a gripping, and a blowing, and
then gradually he emerged, struggling with and
dragging after him the unwieldy and reluctant
form of a big helpless-looking Cod.

These fish rarely (if ever) venture in so close
and boldly, except when badly fed and out of

K2

132 MAKES HIMSELF REALLY USEFUL. [PART I.

condition; and although those which were thus
caught would, when in proper condition, have been
of a very good size (for even then they weighed
as much as ten or twelve pounds each), yet they
were consequently, for the most part, poor, ugly,
ill-shaped brutes, and so little fit for the table,
that, with the exception of a few which the gillies
took home to be salted, such as could be rescued
in time were put back again,—a course of pro-
ceeding by no means to the taste of the Captor,
who viewed it with marked dissatisfaction, evi-
dently shewing by his manner that he considered
we had no right whatever to interfere, and saying
as plainly as a dog could speak, “I never put back
any of your fish Why on earth should you
meddle with mine!” I noticed with some sur-
prise that several of those which had been thus
reprieved seemed nothing daunted by the rough
reception they had experienced, and might be seen
returning after a few minutes to prosecute their
search for the offal, as if nothing had happened.

The keeper told me that, when they were alone
together, the dog had often landed Salmon for
him: as however we had human and mechanical
aids at hand, we never availed ourselves of his
services for that purpose.

CHAPTER X.

Eels held in abhorrence by Scotch—Scruples cvercome—Fou-
hunter —“ Snakes and Puddock-stools”—Deformed Trout
—Brown Trout in Glomack—in the Findhorn— Great
spotted Ling” — Singular effect of fish-die-—* Sour Skate”
—Queer fancy of Cow.

ELS are regarded by the Scotch generally
with the greatest possible aversion, amount-
ing to a loathing quite as great as they would feel
towards snakes, to which they seem to consider
them closely akin. This is really a misfortune, for
there is scarcely a loch or river in Scotland, which
does not swarm with them—the lochs particularly ;
and an excellent and easily attainable article of
food is thus lost to them. They do not, however,
appear to entertain the same repugnance to Con-
ger-eels, which are not unfrequently eaten by the
fishermen and others living along the coast.
Strong as this prejudice is, I have yet known
one or two instances when inhabitants of the
Highlands have been induced to overcome it, and
have generally found that when they had once

134 EELS HELD IN ABHORRENCE BY SCOTCH. [PART I.

tasted the forbidden food (like Charles Lamb's
Ho-ti and Bo-bo, in the case of pork), they needed
no inducement to continue the same course of diet.
One of these instances was rather amusing. Hav-
ing, with some friends, taken a moor in Argyle-
shire a few years ago, we used to obtain from the
loch hard by the lodge a good supply of eels, for
the most part taken with a wire eel-pot or trap
which we had been at the trouble of importing
from England. At the sight of these our old
“Fox-hunter” (whose avocations I will mention
presently) exhibited such extreme and ludicrous
horror, that our English servants, who rather took
a pleasure in “baiting” him, declared one day
that he should have no dinner till he had eaten
an Eel. The poor old Fox-hunter at first affected
to treat it as a joke, and then, finding that that
would not do, endeavoured to move them to pity.
However, it was of no use,—they were bent on his
conversion, and resolutely locked up his dinner.
The unfortunate victim held out for some hours,
but then his increasing appetite, and the savoury
smell of the eel, which he acknowledged was good,
were together too much for him, and he gave in.
The eel was set before him, when, strange to say, he
not only finished it without manifesting any repug-

CH. X.] SCRUPLES OVERCOME—“ FOX-HUNTER.” 135

nance, but (like Oliver Twist) asked for more, and
was ever afterwards happy to avail himself of any
chance that threw an odd one in his way.

As it may seem strange to English ears to
hear that a fox-hunter should have been in a
position to be thus cavalierly treated in respect
of meats, it may be as well to inform the un-
initiated that a “fox-hunter” in the Highlands
means a person who is paid by the neighbouring
farmers to rid the country of foxes. This he does
in all kinds of unhandsome ways, by gun, by trap,
and sometimes by a motley pack of “hounds” by
which they are run to earth, being afterwards dug
out or otherwise disposed of, if they have escaped
being shot im transitu. The lively description
in Guy Mannering of a hunt of this kind will be
vividly in the recollection of all readers of Sir
Walter Scott.

Our Fox-hunter, during the summer and au-
tumn months, when he was not busy about his ©
craft, gave us his valuable services as game-
keeper, dog-feeder, and general factotum as well
on water as land, assisting on the former in the
boats when required. This last occupation how-
ever he never took kindly to, considering it, I
fancy, rather below his dignity, and looking upon

136 “SNAKES AND PUDDOCK-STOOLS.” [PART 1.

fishing in general as an ignoble and degrading
sport rather than otherwise. Shooting was his
delight, when engaged about which I never saw a
day too long, or a hill too high or “coarse” for him,
though upwards of sixty seasons had passed over
his head. It was a favourite boast of his that he
had been forty-three years a fox-hunter, and never
had missed a fair shot at a fox at forty yards,—
“Forrty yarrds, Sirr—yees.”

Besides Eels we used, whenever we could get
them, to indulge in mushrooms, which are also
objects of suspicion to Highlanders, and gene-
rally considered by them utterly unfit for food.
One of our party too was curious in the matter of
funguses, and, not confining himself to the ortho-
dox mushroom, used to bring in all kinds of
“agarics and fungi” of as questionable appear-
ance as those described in Shelley's Sensitive
plant, all of which he insisted on having dressed,
and made a point of doing full justice to. I was
once induced (in an evil hour) to make an essay
on a puff-ball, being assured that it would be quite
as good as the common mushroom. Anything so
nasty I never tasted. From its appearance and
consistency I could well have imagined it to be
broiled slug, and its taste was, to my palate, very

CH. X.] DEFORMED TROUT—TROUT IN GLOMACH. 137

much what a slug fed on decayed vegetables might
have been. But let the puff-balls be by-gones,
and “revenons &@ nos moutons.’ After we had
vacated our house, and the owner had returned
to it, she one day asked the gardener something
about our cuisine, upon which he answered, “Eh!
-they eat snakes and puddock-stools; just vermin,
Mrs 8.”

In a small burn running into Loch Duich
(Ross-shire) I caught with a fly (in 1857) a curiously
deformed Trout, his lower jaw being of the usual
length, but the upper one terminating abruptly
close to the eyes, in the same manner as the one
delineated by Yarrell in his book on British
fishes, Vol. 11. p. 108, except that in this instance
the deformity was more exaggerated. He weighed
about a third of a pound.

Some notion of the number of Brown Trout to
be occasionally met with in parts of the Highlands
may be gathered from the following incident. In
the same part of the country, a short distance above
the grand fall of the Glomach (a visit to which
by the way, throwing itself, as it does, some three
hundred and sixty feet in one unbroken leap,
would be alone almost sufficient to repay a journey
to Scotland), I took up a rod which happened to

138 AN AFTERNOON ON THE FINDHORN. [PART I.

be standing ready at a tent set up there by us
as an occasional sleeping-place and house of call,
and, going down to a pool about eighty yards
below it, caught in less than half-an-hour, without
moving from my place, thirty-one Trout. They
were mostly about Pilchard-size, with the excep-
tion of one, which weighed a pound and a quarter.
I rose him the first throw, but did not move him
again until I had caught twenty-nine. He was an
ugly disgraziato, who looked as if he had his
back broken in his infancy. Had I changed my
ground, so as to fish more water, no doubt I
should have added to the score, but I wished, from
curiosity, to see what I could do whilst standing
in that one spot. Apparently I might have caught
as many more there, had I continued fishing, but
I was then obliged to give up, having other work
in hand.

On another occasion, after about three hours
and a half’s fishing in the Findhorn, I left off in
consequence of my basket being crammed full,
and returned to the Lodge, when I found my take
amounted to a hundred and fifteen, weighing
twenty-six and a half pounds. I had been fishing
under difficulties, having broken my rod in the
outset. In addition to this, I had to carry my own

CH. X.] “GREAT SPOTTED LING.” 139

fish, no slight weight at last, and as I was mostly
wading, and had no net, I lost a great number.
Under favourable circumstances, and fishing the
whole day, I have no doubt but that I could have
easily doubled, if not trebled, the score.

The following saying, which is current amongst
the fishermen on the western coast of Scotland is,
from its originality and grand suggestiveness, not
without its merits, and, I think, worthy of pre-
servation: “Seven Sprats go to feed a Herring;
seven Herrings go to feed a Salmon; seven Salmon
go to feed a Seal; seven Seals go to feed a Whale;
seven Whales go to feed a Kennan-craw ; and se-
ven Kennan-craws go to feed THk GREAT SPOTTED
Line, which lives on the other side of the whole
world.”

An old gillie in service at our shooting-quarters
used to say that the only fish he could eat were
Dog-fish and Salmon, “with may be a Sea-Trout,”
declaring that all the rest made his “skin swell.”
How this swelling developed itself, whether in
head, body, arms, or legs, I never could exactly
make out, for he seemed to be rather afraid of
being “chaffed” on the point, if he entered more
fully into particulars. However, he was evidently
quite in earnest, and seemed thoroughly impress-

140 ODD EFFECT OF FISH DIET-—“ SOUR SKATE.” [PART I.

ed with the conviction that any other kinds of
fish would have the mysterious and unpleasant
effect he attributed to them.

We have heard of strange modes of dressing
food in use amongst uncivilised tribes, but I doubt
whether any “traveller's tales” have ventured on
the description of one more eccentric than the fol-
lowing mode of preparing Skate for the table, the
ingenuity of which is only surpassed by its ex-
ceeding nastiness, and which I was not a little
taken aback at finding adopted in a corner of our
own enlightened kingdom. The fish, when cleaned
(a somewhat unnecessary preliminary one would
think), is buried in wet horse-dung, where it is al-
lowed to soak for about twenty-four hours. It is
then taken out, (washed, we hope), and boiled for
the table, where it is presented as “Sour Skate’—
“a varra deleecious dish,” according to my infor-
mant, who evidently spoke of it with consider-
able gusto. If, as has been asserted, the pro-
gress of the gastronomic art affords a fair test
by which to estimate the march of civilization,
what conclusion might not be drawn from this
little circumstance with regard to our friends of
the Hebrides ?

If some of the Scotch have strange fancies in

CH.X.] A COW OF EXPENSIVE TASTES. 141

the matter of diet, their cattle, it would seem,
occasionally take after them in this respect. I was
one day fishing the Ness out of a boat, when I
noticed a cow inquisitively examining some things
which I had left by the water-side. On landing
I found she had been influenced by other mo-
tives than those of mere curiosity, having eaten
up the whole of one side (the button half) of a
new macintosh. Happening shortly afterwards
to meet the miller whose property she was, I
exhibited to him the mangled evidence of her
misdeeds, expecting at least to meet with some-
thing like sympathy for my loss. His sympathies
were however all on the other side. He surveyed
it for some time in silence and with an air of
dejection, and then simply exclaimed, “Eh, but
she'll no be the better o’ the buttons!”

PART II.

Hatural Bistory.

NATURAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

Nest of Mason Wasp—Larve under Water-lily Leaves—
Birds misled by unseasonable weather—Tameness of
Robins—Tameness of Wood-pigeon during breeding-
season—of White-throat—of Partridge—Tame Gulls—
Tameness of. Gulls in general—Thetr flight variable ac-
cording to weather.

N unusually favourable opportunity was af-
forded me a few years ago of observing the
mode adopted by the Mason Wasp (Odynerus
parietinus ?) in the construction of its nest, and the
disposition of its larvee with the food provided
for their sustenance.

I was sitting in a somewhat dilapidated
summer-house, when I noticed one of these in-
sects busily engaged in endeavouring to insinuate
a white caterpillar, ‘about two-thirds of an inch
long, into a hole in the upright skirting. From
the smallness of the aperture it was a work of

L

146 NEST OF MASON WASP. [PART II.

some difficulty, but he at length succeeded in
effecting his object. The next day the same man-
ceuvre was repeated and another caterpillar gra-
dually worked into the hole. As I happened to
be leaving the neighbourhood on the following
day, and was curious to ascertain how these pri-
soners had been stowed away, I carefully stripped
off the skirting adjoining the hole, when the
secrets of the prison-house were at once revealed.
The hole communicated with the bottom of a per-
pendicular opening in the wood-work some three
inches in length. From the top of this was sus-
pended by a slender filament an egg, with and
below which was immured a caterpillar still alive,
but apparently in a semi-torpid state. These were
secured by a flooring of cement, from which was
suspended another egg, having for company ano-
ther living caterpillar. Then came another floor-
ing—then another egg and caterpillar—then ano-
ther flooring, and so on; four cells having been
thus completed one above another, each containing
its egg, and the caterpillar destined to become
food for the young wasp when hatched. The
caterpillars were all in the same state of semi-
torpidity, these insects having, in common with
others, as the Sphea and Pompilus, the marvellous

CH. I.] PARALYZED CATERPILLARS. 147

power, by stinging it is supposed—though I be-
lieve that some of these insects never use their
stings for purposes of defence—of partially dead-
ening (though without destroying) the vital prin-
ciple of insects stored up as food for their young.
I much regretted being unable to watch the pro-
gress of this interesting piece of domestic eco-
nomy.

Although this insect exactly resembled the
Odynerus parietinus, yet I hesitate to express a
positive opinion that it was. of that species, as the
Parietinus appears—so far as the knowledge at
present possessed of its habits extends—to provide
for its young a number of small caterpillars, in-
stead of one large one for each as in the present
instance. That it may, however, thus adapt itself
to circumstances in the selection of the food to
be stored up, is at least possible ; and the fact, if
ascertained, would only add another to the num-
berless instances in which the marvellous instinct
of insects is displayed’.

1 This method of providing food for their young is not
confined to the Mason Wasps—it being adopted also by the
Sphegide, Pompilide, and others—and appears to prevail very
widely throughout the world. Darwin, in his interesting Va-
turalist’s Voyage round the World, mentions the same thing

as happening, under very similar circumstances, at Rio de
L2

148 LARV4 UNDER WATER-LILY LEAVES. [PART II.

Another ingeniously constructed infant nursery
came under my notice whilst on a visit to a friend
near Marlow. Having observed that several of
the water-lily leaves floating on the surface of a
moat were perforated by cleanly cut circular holes,
nearly the size of a florin, I was induced to turn
up these and some of the adjacent leaves, when

Janeiro, and refers to a paper in the Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, by Lieut. Hutton, who describes a kind of
Sphex and also a Pomptlus which construct their cells side
by side, and store them with spiders.

Kirby and Spence assert (apparently on the authority of
Bonnet) that the Mason Wasp “not only encloses a living
caterpillar along with its eggs in the cell, which it carefully
closes, but at the expiration of a few days, when the young
grub has appeared and consumed its provision, reopens the
nest, incloses a second caterpillar, and again shuts the mouth.”
Can it be that the caterpillars which were thus seen to be
brought to the nest on successive days, and supposed to be for
the eggs collectively, may have been, as in the case I have
mentioned, each destined for its particular egg? In the nest
I have described I am satisfied that it was impossible for the
parent Wasp to communicate with the upper cells except by
destroying those below it.

Further notices of similar insects will be found in Gosse’s
Letters from Alabama, page 244, where there is also given an
illustration representing a Pelopwus flavipes in the act of
carrying a spider to its cell; and in Sir James E. Tennent’s
Ceylon, 1. 256. According to this latter author the Sphegida
there lay their eggs in the pupe of other insects before de-
positing them in the cells,

CH. 1.] WHAT WERE THEY? 149

the use to which the missing pieces had been ap-
plied was made apparent. They were adhering
flat-wise to the under sides of the leaves, and from
their puffy appearance, evidently formed coverings
to some bulky substances. These, on my stripping
off their covers, proved to be large fat grubs
(apparently at least two thirds of an inch long)
each comfortably tucked in by his green sheet,
which was closely cemented to the leaf forming
the bed under which he reposed.

As to the insect to which these larvee owed their
existence I must confess myself much in the dark.
Not having, at the time when I discovered them,
paid as much attention as I ought to this branch
of Natural History, I was not then aware that
there was anything very uncommon in this dis-
position of the larvee, and in consequence unfor-
tunately neglected to secure a specimen or make
accurate measurements. Since then I have spared
no pains to ascertain what the insect was, and have
applied for information on the subject to some
of our most distinguished entomologists, hitherto
however, strange to say, without success. Divers
species, Donacia, Hydrocampa stagnalis, Nym-
phosolis, &c. &c. have been suggested, but in
no instance does the manner in which the

150 BIRDS DECEIVED BY WEATHER. [PART II.

egg is deposited quite tally with the one above
mentioned. From the similarity of the Hydro-
campa potamogeta’s arrangements (described by
Réaumur—see Rennie’s Insect Architecture, p. 154.
Murray, 1857) I should however conclude that
the one in question was of that family. The Cater-
pillar, indeed, appeared to me thicker than I
should expect to find that of a Hydrocampa,
but my eyes may have thus far deceived me.

From ‘the mistakes which birds occasionally
make with regard to the time of incubation, it
would appear that their instinct affords them no
other guide to the approach of summer, than that
of the increasing warmth of the temperature. A
remarkable proof of this occurred in the winter
of 1857-8, when two of the chimnies of a house
in the Isle of Wight, where I was staying at the
time, were between Christmas and New Year’s
Day blocked up by Jackdaws’ nests, which must
have been constructed then, as the chimnies had
been swept less than a fortnight before. The
birds were indeed, I believe, actually seen carry-
ing in materials. In these nests, besides the quan-
tity of sticks and rubbish of which they usually
consist, the jackdaws had taken the odd fancy to
insert some pieces of glass, whether for use or

CH. 1.] A SECOND SUMMER. 151

ornament did not appear. Had they been allowed
to continue their operations they would have been
soon undeceived by the setting in of a hard frost
accompanied by heavy snow, and reduced, in
spite of their warm situations, to the state of
Cowper's birds:
“ Back into their nests they paddled,
Themselves were chilled, their eggs were addled.”

The extraordinary freshness of the foliage, &c. at
that period was however quite sufficient to mis-
lead any simple-minded bird. For instance, within
a day or two of the same time J found, in a some-
what exposed situation, a blackberry-bush, having
at once upon it flowers in full bloom, and green,
ripening, and ripe fruit, quite reminding one of
Homer’s description of the vines in Alcinous’
garden, Od. H. 117—126. Whilst we were thus
enjoying a second summer in England, the weather
was, in the south of France, Italy, Portugal, Malta,
and the East, unusually severe. From a friend,
who had gone to Pau to escape the rigours of the
English winter, I received, while the Jackdaws
were thus building in our chimnies, and the black-
berries still in full autumnal vigour, a letter ex-
pressing his regret that he had not taken his
skates with him; and again, about the third week

152 TAME ROBINS. [PART II.

in January, when he had migrated to Rome in
hopes of finding the warm weather he had vainly
sought at Pau, another, in which he said, “The
ice about the fountains, &c. is just beginning to
shew signs of thawing.” During all the early part
of the winter the weather had been, in the south
of England, remarkably dry.

There were about the same house a few years ago
a pair of Robins, who were more than usually tame,
and whose determination to identify themselves with
the family, and make themselves at home, was not
a little amusing. They used regularly to come
into the dining-room at breakfast time, and help
themselves to whatever they fancied, modestly con-
fining themselves, however, generally to the side-
table, where the tail of one was often to be seen
appearing above a pie-dish, the rest of him being
busily engaged inside, “pegging away” at a hard-
boiled egg, or something nice of the kind. When
the spring came on they commenced a regular
contest with the housemaids, of which the draw-
ing-rooms formed the scene of action; the robins
insisting that they would build there, and Fanny
and Co. insisting that they should not. “ Hapelles
FSurcd, tamen usque recurrent.’ As soon as a nest
was commenced in one place, in went Fanny's

CH.1.] WILL BUILD IN THE DRAWING-ROOM. 153

broom (her “furca”) or her fingers, and out it
came, when they immediately looked out another
place and began again. Three or four nests had
been thus commenced, and as rudely put a stop
to, when the birds, seeing the mistake they had
committed in building within the housemaids
reach, pitched on a spot where they might well
think the nest would be secure from molestation,
in a corner, over one of the curtain-rods. Here
they laboured undisturbed, except that the house-
maids still endeavoured to hinder their operations
by keeping the windows shut as much as possible,
and giving chase to them whenever they found
them in the room. I have seen the housemaid in
vain attempting to drive one out, as he kept hop-
ping about, just out of her reach, with a piece of
moss or leaf in his mouth destined for the nest,
to which he at length succeeded in carrying it.
In spite of this determined opposition they ma-
naged, by great exertions, to get a rough nest
finished in time to receive Madame’s first egg.
They must then have considered their triumph
complete, but, alas! that very day was the one
fixed upon for the general half-yearly “cleaning.”
The doom of the nest was sealed, and a short time
afterwards I was sorry to see it, looking very

154 TAMENESS OF WOODPIGEON. [PART II.

disconsolate with its single egg, on a table in the
hall. I did not see either of the birds in the
drawing-room afterwards. They probably gave up
settling there as a “bad job,” and went to look
out some more favoured place, where housemaids,
with their brooms, pails, e¢ hoc genus omne,
were unlikely to trouble them. I wonder what
lying-in-hospital poor Madame found for her re-
maining eggs.

The tameness of the Woodpigeon during the
breeding season presents a remarkable contrast to
his extreme wildness at other seasons of the year.
In the winter, saving the Curlew, I scarcely know
a shyer bird, or one who takes generally better
care of himself. If you endeavour to approach
one in a tree, he almost invariably flies off so as
to keep it between yourself and him, and thus
often saves himself from the chance of a shot. In
the spring, however, you see the Woodpigeon qui-
etly walking about your pleasure-grounds close to
the house, or sitting unconcerned on a low tree,
and cooing, within a few yards of you, crossing
you as he leaves it, or coming straight over your
head with a flight betokening nothing of alarm
or haste, but probably executing, as he does it,
one of those elegant movements peculiar to that

CH, I.] OF WHITE-THROAT. 155

season, raising» himself on the wing and gracefully
subsiding again, as if his ordinary flight was too
low and commonplace for his buoyant spirits.

But though the effect of the breeding-season
in counteracting the natural wildness of the bird
is peculiarly exemplified in the case of the Wood-
pigeon, it is by no means confined to that species.
Many appear to be more or less sensible of its
genial influence.

I remember finding, when a boy, the nest of a
White-throat, which she had constructed in the
stem of a tall hemlock. Whilst engaged in the
work of incubation, she appeared to be perfectly
devoid of fear, and would not only permit my
sister and myself to stroke her on her nest, but
would actually take food from our hands, thus
proving that her tameness was not merely the
result of that mysterious o7ropyn—that love for
her young, which in the female seems to annihilate
all sense of fear, but that, apart from it, she had
lost that dread of man by which she would at
other times have been more or less influenced.

The following remarkable anecdote may not
be considered out of place here, although it is not
improbable that in this instance the bird was actu-
ated simply by orépyn.

156 ANECDOTE OF PARTRIDGE. [PART II.

A Partridge, which had her nest in a hedge-
row close to a footpath leading to a farm-house in
the Isle of Wight, sat there upon thirteen eggs,
and appeared so little disturbed by the presence
of the passers-by, that the farmer one day, from
curiosity, put his hand down to see if she would
permit him to touch her. The bird however flew
off, but, doing so hastily, became caught in the
briars surrounding the nest, and he took her up.
He then perceived that her crop had been ripped
up by a thorn, and to such an extent that its
contents escaped through the rent. He took the
bird into the house, where his wife, with the
assistance of her maid, carefully sewed up, one
after another, the wounds in the inner and outer
skins of the crop, rubbed in a little salt butter by
way of a salve, and set the bird at liberty. Away
she flew,—but within a very short time, in spite of
all that had occurred, she had actually returned
to her eggs, of which, in due time, she succeeded
in hatching twelve.

This story appears at first sight so improbable,
that it is perhaps as well for me to state that I
have satisfied myself by personal inquiries as to
its perfect accuracy.

I have known of two instances in which Gulls,

CH. 1.] HABITS OF TAME GULLS. 157

which had been caught young, and tamed, have
continued to keep up their intimacy with those
who reared them, after they had gained the full
use of their wings and were at perfect liberty ;
though they took advantage of it to go away every
year at the breeding-season, and might have been
supposed to have entirely resumed their natural
habits. Both of these instances occurred in the
Isle of Wight—one at Calbourne, where I well
remember “old Phil,” as he was called, year after
year, sailing over the village-green, and alighting
on a low wall at the grocer’s shop, from which he
used to be fed with bits of cheese, of which he was
very fond, and other similar dainties. The other
instance was near Sea View, where, I am informed,
the gull used to return in the same way, his
former tameness not appearing to have been at
all affected by his temporary retirement into wild
life. Not the least remarkable part of the history
of these birds is that, during the breeding-season,
each of them occasionally brought his mate with
him to introduce her to his old friends, and to
invite her to partake of their hospitality. I don’t
think, indeed, that “old Phil” ever prevailed on
his better half to come and share his cheese, but
she used to keep him company into the village,

158 TAMENESS OF GULLS IN GENERAL. [PART II.

and sometimes amuse herself in a pond hard by,
whilst he went to pay his accustomed visit to the
grocer. In the other case, near Sea View, my
informant tells me the wild Gull used to come up
and feed with the tame one under his dining-room
windows, though she would not approach quite
close so long as any one was visible at them, but
sat on the grass-plat a short distance off, or ho-
vered round until the coast seemed clear.

Perhaps there is naturally less fear of man
entertained by Gulls than by most other birds.
One can scarcely be for a few hours at sea, or by
the water in a harbour-town, without some of
them, from curiosity or carelessness, coming round
so close to one as to afford sufficient proof of this.
Last year (1858), whilst fishing at some distance
outside the harbour at Stornoway, I threw over,
foul-hooked, and brought into the boat, with a
short cuddy rod and line, which happened to be
on board, two Gulls, as they flew round close to
us, allured by the hope of a share in our fish.
The first, when released, not having exhibited the
slightest fear, but continued to. hover round us,
closer, if anything, than before, as if he fancied
he had then a special claim to our attention,
I thought, on catching the second, I would see to

CH. I.] GULLS OFF STORNOWAY. 159

what extent he might be disposed to entertain
friendly relations towards us. Accordingly, I
took him in my lap, and offered him some nice
bits of fish. At first he professed to be angry,
and pecked at my fingers instead of the fish,
as if to ask whether I thought it possible that
he would condescend to accept my donations
under restraint. However, having accidentally-on-
purpose got hold of a piece of the fish, down it
went; and, apparently thinking that under the
circumstances he might do worse, he set to work
with no ill-will or appetite, and soon got through
a good part of a haddock. Then however, whe-
ther from eating too fast, or from his position
being uncomfortable, or perhaps from a feeling
that he had heen compromising his dignity—for-
tunately for me I had a pair of macintosh
overalls on—up it all came again. As I had
been for some time engaged in feeding this
nursling, who thus repaid me by “puking in his
nurse’s arms,” and the fish were biting freely, I
left him to his own devices, and away he went.
On regaining his liberty however, so far from
appearing to resent my compulsory kindness, he
rather seemed to wish for a repetition of the same
course of treatment, for he continued to fly

160 GULLS’ FLIGHT AN INDEX TO WEATHER. [PART II.

backwards and forwards within a few feet of our
heads, as if he thought he had been a fool after
all. The captain of one of the Dover and Ostend
steamers told me that he had seen a Gull come and
take off the taffrail food which had been placed
there for him.

Changes of weather may be foretold with con-
siderable accuracy by observing the flight of Gulls,
as, after feeding inland, they, according to their
invariable custom, wing their way homewards
towards evening to their roosting-places in the
cliffs; making this transit in fine weather high
and in comparative silence, but in bad blustery
weather, and before rain, much more noisily and
nearer to the ground, merely skirting the tops of
the coverts which lie in their course.

CHAPTER II.

Do Birds understand what they say ?—Anecdotes in point—
Sand-martins at Weybridge—Swallows killed by Para-
sites—Swan feeding Cygnets—Cock-turkey as Nurse—
Disposition of Egg-shells in Nests of Partridges, éc.—
£9gs of White Pheasunt—of Himalayan diito—Hatching
by Pheasants and Hens compared—Two Species of Land
Lizards—Large Lizard in Spain—Estremadura—Black
Viper—Fetidness of Common Snake—Snake and Eel.

1 a pleasant article contributed to Fraser's

Magazine in October, 1857, entitled “Jays
and Nutcrackers,” are collected some anecdotes of
birds, with a view of proving that those brought
up in confinement, and taught to speak, in time
become acquainted with the meaning of the words
which they utter. Now whether such cases as
those referred to are merely the result of acci-
dental coincidence ; whether, having been taught
to associate certain words with certain actions,
it is only by rote and mechanically that birds are
led to repeat them at the appropriate times, as

M

162 DO BIRDS UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY SAY? [PART II.

they unquestionably do; or whether they ever
really understand the meaning of what they say,
it would be hard to prove, no matter to what
extent instances might be multiplied.

Although I confess I do not give birds credit
for so much sense as the author of “Jays and
Nutcrackers,” yet I will contribute an anecdote,
for the accuracy of which I can vouch, and which,
so far as it goes, certainly tends to prove his
theory.

A Parrot belonging to some friends of mine
was generally taken out of the room when the
family assembled for prayers, for fear lest he
might take it into his head to join irreverently in
the responses. One evening however his pre-
sence happened to be unnoticed, and he was for-
gotten. For some time he maintained a de-
corous silence, but at length, instead of “Amen,”
out he came with “Cheer boys, cheer.’ On this
the butler was directed to remove him, and had
got as far as the door with him, when the bird,
perhaps thinking that he had committed himself,
and had better apologize, called out, “Sorry I
spoke.” The overpowering effect on the congre-
gation may be more easily imagined than de-
scribed.

CH. II.] ANECDOTES OF PARROTS. 163

The Parrot of a relation of mine also used,
whenever he dropped anything he was eating, to
say, “Pick up Bobby’s crust,” being doubtless
prompted by the same train of associations, as
those which lead another Parrot, which I know
well, invariably to say, “Thank you,’ whenever
anything is given to him.

The following story is not a bad one, but all
that I can say with regard to its authenticity is,
st non @ vero, @ ben trovato—If it be not true,
it deserves to be so for the sake both of master
and pupil. Some parrot-fanciers had agreed to
meet in a year’s time, when each was to shew a
bird for a prize, proficiency in talking being by
common consent to be the great criterion of merit.
On the day appointed all the rest came, each duly
bringing his Parrot: one only appeared without
his. On being asked why he had not shewn one
according to the agreement, he said that he had
tried to train one, but that he was such a stupid
bird he was quite ashamed to bring him. This
excuse was held to be inadmissible. All the others
insisted that, stupid or clever, he must be pro-
duced, and his master accordingly went off for and
returned with him. No sooner was he introduced,

than, looking round at the large assemblage of
M2

164 SAND MARTINS AT WEYBRIDGE. [PART II.

birds, he exclaimed, “My G—, what a lot of Par-
rots!” The prize was immediately voted to him
by acclamation.

Whilst waiting for the train one afternoon at
Weybridge, I amused myself with watching the
Sand Martins, who have there a large establish-
ment on either side of the cutting, and got into
conversation with one of the porters about them.
On my saying, I supposed that the boys robbed a
good many of the nests, he answered, “Oh! Sir,
they would if they was allowed, but the birds are
such good friends to us, that we won't let any body
meddle with them.” I fancied at first that he
spoke of them as friends in the way of company
only, but he explained his meaning to be that the
flies about the station would be quite intolerable
if they were not cleared off by the Martins, which
are always hawking up and down in front of it;
adding that even during the few hot days which
occurred in the spring before their arrival, the
flies were becoming very troublesome. “Now,”
he said, “we may now and then see one, but that
is all.”

It was a bright sunny day in July, and the
scene was a very lively and interesting one. The
mouths of the holes on both sides of the cutting

CH. II] SWALLOWS KILLED BY PARASITES. 165

were crowded with young Martins—as many per-
haps as four or five in each—sunning their barred
white breasts, and waiting to be fed: the telegraph
wires formed perches, of which advantage was
taken by scores of others more advanced in
growth, and of old ones reposing after their exer-
tions; while the air was filled with others em-
ployed in catering for their families. All of a
sudden the young ones retreated into their holes;
the wires were deserted, and only a few remained
visible describing distant circles. I thought that
a Hawk must have made his appearance, but it
turned out that the alarm had been caused by two
men walking over the heath above, and approach-
ing the holes. The young ones in the holes had,
no doubt, felt the jar caused by their tread, and
those on the wing, who saw them, had probably
given warning, by note, to the others perched on
the wires, who could not have seen, nor, I should
think, heard their approach.

Two well-authenticated instances have come
within my knowledge in which Swallows have,
while in the act of flying, fallen to the ground co-
vered with and partly devoured by insects. Of the
fact there seemed to be no doubt, but the descrip-
tion of the insects furnished me by my informants

166 SWAN AND YOUNG—TURKEY-COCK-NURSE. [PARTII.

was so vague, that I could do no more than form
a conjecture as to their species.

On the Thames last summer I was amused by
watching an old Swan feeding her young ones,
in what seemed to me a novel and ingenious man-
ner. Sitting on the water with her breast against
the bank, she gathered from it the grass as far over
as she could reach, and then, turning round her
long neck, threw it over her back to the cygnets,
who seemed quite up to the mancuvre and were
waiting and scrambling for it in the water behind
her. My attention was called to it by the fisher-
man who was with me, and who—though he
had lived all his life by the banks of the Thames—
said he had never witnessed it before.

They have in Germany an odd, but useful,
plan of pressing the cock Turkey into the service
of the nursery, and making him take a share of
the work, which he is naturally disposed to leave
to his better halves. It is managed in this way :—
When a “clutch”’ of eggs is ready, they are placed,
with the cock Turkey, in a coop of such small
dimensions that he has no choice but to sit upon
them. At first he is let out occasionally for a
short time to amuse himself, and then put back
again, and obliged to continue his work of incu-

CH.II.] | DISPOSITION OF EGG-SHELLS. 167

bation. But gradually he becomes deluded into
the belief that sitting upon the eggs is his proper
métier, and in a day or two not only returns to
them of his own accord, but performs all the other
duties of the situation in an exemplary manner,
hovering the young ones when hatched, and look-
ing after them with as much care as the true
mother could have done.

If Partridges’, Pheasants’, or Grouse’s nests
be examined, after the young birds have been
hatched, it will be found that the half egg-shells
which remain are very generally left together in
pairs, one being closely fitted into the other, as
cups are stowed away in a crockery shop. Ordi-
narily a small end is packed inside a large one,
but this is not always the case, as I have now and
then seen two large ends thus united. This oper-
ation is not performed by the parent bird, as is
proved by its occurrence when the eggs are
hatched in boxes so small that she could not pos-
sibly get at them to do it if she wished. How the
young birds manage it, or why it is done at all,
I cannot imagine. Of the fact it is easy for any
one to satisfy himself, as I have done. Though I
mention Grouse, Pheasants, and Partridges, as the
birds in whose nests I have particularly noticed

168 WHITE PHEASANT—HIMALAYAN DITTO. [PART II.

the egg-shells thus disposed, yet I am far from
saying that it is confined to those species.

The eggs of the White Pheasant are smaller
and rounder than those of the Common Pheasant,
and thus easily distinguishable from them. I have
the authority of a keeper, who kept both kinds
separate, though in adjoining houses, for saying
that they also lay about a fortnight earlier than
the common ones. These peculiarities would tend
to prove that the two are quite distinct breeds,
instead of the white birds, as some persons sup-
pose, being a mere variety—the albinoes of the
Common Pheasant. They will mate freely with
the Common Pheasant, and the offspring of such
union will again breed; pied, white, and ordinarily
coloured birds being the result; but, where the
breed was originally pure, and they have been
kept separate, I have never known an instance
(and I have seen them kept so a good many
years in succession) where they have produced
other than perfectly white birds.

The eggs of the Himalayan Pheasant are also
somewhat smaller, rounder, and more richly co-
loured than those of the Common Pheasant, and
come in (I am informed by a friend’s keeper)
about a week or ten days earlier,

CH. 11.] HATCHING BY PHEASANTS AND HENS. 169

The process of hatching appears to occupy a
much shorter time when the sitting mother is a
Pheasant, than when the eggs have been put
under a Common Fowl. Should you have ex-
amined a Pheasant’s nest in the morning, and
found none of the eggs pecked, you may, on re-
turning to it the same afternoon or evening, find
every single one hatched and the young birds
clear off. Under a Common Fowl hatching a clutch
of Pheasants’ eggs is a work of generally from
thirty-six to forty-eight hours, and then, in most
cases, one or two of the number will prove to be
addled or fail to be drawn out. The only way
in which I can account for this delay in the
hatching, is by supposing the heat of the Phea-
sant to be more regularly diffused than that of
the Fowl. The reason why the Pheasant generally
succeeds in bringing to maturity a larger propor-
tion of her eggs than the Fowl, may be that her
own are turned by herself, whilst those intrusted
to the Fowl are turned by the keeper.

Two Pheasants’ nests have been this year (1859)
found by a friend’s keeper, a large proportion of
the eggs in which were smaller than any of the
kind that had ever come under my notice, being
about the size of those of Magpies’. One contained

170 TWO SPECIES OF LAND LIZARDS. [PART II.

six of these, together with seven of the ordinary
size, and the other seven, with five of the ordinary
size, all the small ones being of about the same
dimensions. The eggs of young birds are often
smaller than those of older ones, but these were
out of all proportion to the size of the bird. They
were besides unusually pointed at the small end.
None of these small eggs came to maturity, one of
the nests having been forsaken by the old bird,
and those of the other, which were placed under
a Common Hen, turning out to be addled.

It was formerly generally considered that
there was but one species of land Lizard indi-
genous to this country. I had however for a
good while before I was aware that the question
had been set at rest by Professor Bell (who in
his work on British Reptiles distinguishes the
Lacerta agilis from the Zootoca vivipera), and
indeed before its publication, entertained a strong
suspicion that there were two distinct species,
having two or three times seen specimens—such
bloated, mottled, ungainly looking beasts, as com-
pared with the bright symmetrical little fellows,
who occasionally dart across our path, all life and
activity, that I could not bring myself to believe ,
the great difference between them was attri-

CH. I1.] LARGE LIZARD IN SPAIN. 171

butable merely to age or disease. On mentioning
the subject to a station-master on the railway
near Wimborne, a very intelligent man, who had
ample opportunities for forming an opinion with
regard ta it (Lizards being extremely abundant
in that neighbourhood), he said he “knew posi-
tively” that there were two kinds, adding that
one of them was poisonous, and the other harm-
less, the two being easily distinguishable when
in motion, as the one then carried its tail erect ;
the other horizontally. As a proof that one
species was poisonous, he assured me that he
had seen one spring at, and hang on to, the face
of his cat, when shaken off from which he killed
it, with one of her “smellers” (whisker-hairs) still
in its mouth; and that the cat's head swelled to
a great size in consequence of the bite. I give
the story as he told it me, for what it may be
worth, merely adding my conviction that he stated
what he believed to be the fact.

The largest Lizard that I ever saw was in
Spain, in the south part of Estremadura. I was
riding along a rough bridle-road, in the outskirts
of one of the extensive tracts of woodland which
form so peculiar a feature of that part of the
country, when I was startled by something break-

172 BIRDS IN ESTREMADURA. [PART II.

ing covert from an adjoining patch of bushes
with so loud a rustle that I expected at the very
least to see a Hare make her appearance. Instead
of this however, to my great surprise, out bolted
an enormous Lizard, and away he went across
the open with head and tail well up, really a
noble looking beast. In length he could not have
been much under two feet, if he did not exceed
it, but he was chiefly remarkable for the size
of his body, which appeared to me to be nearly
or quite as large round as the thickest part of
a man’s arm, his head and tail being quite in
proportion.

Having mentioned Estremadura, I may en
passant observe that no part of Europe (and I
have been over a good part of it) ever struck
me as abounding with birds generally to such an
extent as that lovely district, or as affording so
varied a field for the researches of the Ornitho-
logist.

Some years ago I killed in the Isle of Wight
a black Viper, exactly resembling in colour and
general appearance the variety figured in Pro-
fessor Bell’s “ Reptiles.’ Being in covert when I
came upon him, he availed himself of the cir-
cumstance to take refuge in a large hollow hazel-

CH. II.] BLACK VIPER. 173

stock before I could intercept his retreat. There
happened however, unluckily for him, besides the
hole by which he had entered at the side of the
stock, to be another in the top of it, peering down
through which I could distinguish him lying
partly coiled up at the bottom. On this I cut a
stick with a small fork, and inserting it judiciously
through the upper hole, managed to secure him
(so far) by pinning him down just behind the head.
This of course led to all kinds of contortions
on his part with a view of escaping, during one
of which, as I expected, he protruded the end of
his tail through the side-hole. Being all ready
and on the watch for this, I immediately seized
it with the other hand, and did not relinquish
my hold, until I succeeded in drawing him bodily
out by it, which I effected by waiting until his
muscles seemed somewhat relaxed, and then
giving him a sudden pull, at the same instant
removing the fork with my right hand. He was
certainly unusually large for a Viper, but un-
fortunately I did not keep any record of his
exact length, and cannot now charge my memory
with it.

It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the offen-
siveness of the odour emitted by the Common

174 FETIDNESS OF COMMON SNAKE. [PART II.

Snake under provocation. Of its lasting proper-
ties I suffered the following unpleasant proof.

Having once found two lying coiled up close
together, I disabled them both by grounding
the butt of my gun on them, only using it, I
think (so far as they were concerned), for that
one blow. The butt however became in conse-
quence of it so thoroughly impregnated with their
fetid stink, that I could hardly bear to use the
gun for weeks afterwards. Were I to say that
the smell was disagreeably perceptible on it for
a good many months, I believe I should not be
in the least over-stating the case.

As one of our garden-men was, a few years
ago, passing by a small stream forming the com-
munication between two ponds, his attention was
attracted by an unusual splashing in it. On going
to the spot, he found this was occasioned by a
violent struggle between a Common Snake of some
twenty inches in length, and an Hel about two-
thirds of his own size, which he was using his
utmost endeavours to swallow, and had actually
succeeded in getting half-way down his throat,
while the Kel was still making frantic exertions
with the extant part of his tail, in his futile
attempts to escape. The man put an end to the

CH. I1.] SNAKE AND EEL. 175

scene, and the Snake and Eel hors de combat,
with a smashing blow across the middle, and
brought them up to the house just as they were,
with the tail of the Eel still protruding from the
Snake’s mouth.

CHAPTER III.

Strength of Moles—Popular notion respecting them—Badger
—White Fox—Fondness of Cows for bones—Stinking
Goat—Fascination of Human Eye on Birds—Charming
away Warts—Fancies taken by Animals —Spaniel—
Squirrel—Macaw—Kitten—Cur baptism—Dog’s ear for
Music—Growling at “strangers” in tea.

HE strength of Moles must be prodigious in
proportion to their size. In a summer-house
T have seen the track of one distinctly marked by
the upheaval and complete displacement of the
large round pebbles, which, tightly rammed down
together, formed the pavement, and that too right
across the centre, where they had been subjected
to the greatest additional pressure from the tread
of persons passing in and out. There is a popular
notion current in the Isle of Wight that these
animals (“Wants,” as they are there commonly
called) work only when the tide is flowing. It is
not unfrequently possible to trace these “vulgar
errors” to some source, but it would, I fancy, be
difficult to do so in this case.

CH. III] BADGER—WHITE FOX. 177

A large Badger, which had been caught in a
covert overhanging one of the cliffs in the Isle of
Wight—the only one, by the way, that I ever heard
of wild there—was given to a gentleman, who took
a fancy to, and wished to tame him. He kept him
for some time, but then, finding him troublesome,
determined on putting him out of the way, to
effect which he gave him, in milk, a large quantity
of prussic acid, or what was sold to him as such
by achemist. To his great astonishment however,
the badger not only lapped it up freely, without
appearing to be at all the worse for it, but seemed
rather to like it than otherwise, and he was
obliged to resort to some other less doubtful mea-
sures for the poor beast’s execution.

A milk-white dog Fox was during last autumn
(1859) taken up alive before the Isle of Wight
hounds. Although the run had been a good one,
and they ran into him in the open, yet, strange to
say, when they came up with him, doubtless in
consequence of his unusual appearance, not a
hound would touch him, and he was taken up out
of the midst of them perfectly uninjured. He
was conveyed to the stables of the master of the
hounds, where, a suitable residence having been
organized for him, he still remains in very flou-

N

178 FONDNESS OF CATTLE FOR BONES. [PART II.

rishing condition. He cannot, of course, be ex-
pected to be very tame yet, but the few months
during which he has been in captivity have done
much towards overcoming his natural timidity, he
having already become so far reconciled to the
noise and bustle of the stable-yard, as to sit qui-
etly sunning himself on the top of his “earth,”
whilst the men are engaged in their usual avoca-
tions.

It has been suggested that he may owe his
colour—or rather, I believe I should strictly say,
absence of colour—to the paternity of an Arctic
fox, which was some years ago in the possession
of a gentleman in the Island, and afterwards made
his escape. As, however, this one exhibits none
of the peculiarities of form which characterise that
species, I am inclined to believe him to be simply
an albino.

The fancy which Cattle have for bones appears
to me not unworthy of observation. The shooting-
lodge, which, as I have before mentioned, I occu-
pied during a couple of seasons in Ross-shire, was
only separated by the road from a sea-loch, into
which were thrown all the refuse bones from the
establishment. Here, every day at low water,
might be seen the cows of the neighbouring

CH. III.] DO DEER EAT THEIR SHED-HORNS? 179

farmer, twelve or fourteen in number, (sometimes
accompanied by the bull), at first busily engaged
in searching for these, and afterwards each oc-
cupied for a couple of hours in quietly mumbling
her bone. Occasionally one would succeed, after
some time, in reducing hers sufficiently to enable
her to swallow it, when down it slipped, and she
immediately set about looking for another, or, if
she could not find one, endeavouring to filch that
of a more fortunate neighbour. Bones were evi-
dently the peculiar objects of their search, but, if
bones ran short, they would make shift with
lobster-shells, or even, as I remember seeing on
one occasion, the sole of an old shoe.

These cows had plenty of pasture, and were
in good condition. Whether they really relished
the bones for their flavour, or were merely actu-
ated by an instinctive impulse, such as induces
dogs to eat grass, or birds gravel, for the purpose
of aiding digestion, I will not pretend to deter-
mine: any way, whatever may have been the in-
ducement, they evidently derived very consider-
able gratification from the act of mumbling
them.

It has been supposed by some people, as a
means of accounting for the mysterious disappear-

N2

180 STINKING GOAT. [PART II.

ance of the horns annually shed by stags, that
they may be eaten by them and the hinds. I was
formerly inclined to treat this as a fiction, but
seeing the extraordinary avidity with which in
this case the bones were sought after and eaten
by the cattle, I was led to imagine that there may
be some foundation for it. It is indeed difficult
to understand how such hard and intractable sub-
stances as a Deer’s antlers could be thus disposed
of, but there is no saying what a patient and per-
severing mumbling of them day after day might
not effect. It is well known, besides, that other
animals (Toads and Shrimps for instance) are par-
ticularly fond of their own exuvice, and, so far as
it goes, this fact might be adduced as an argu-
ment in support of the theory.

Of all the stenches which it has been my mis-
fortune to meet with, I know none to be compared
in point of offensiveness with that emitted by the
Common Snake when irritated, as mentioned be-
fore, page 174. But judging from the account
given me by a friend, of a Goat in his neighbour-
hood, I should think that in a match for unsa-
vouriness between the snake and the goat, the
latter would probably have come off easily victo-
rious. The intensity of the stink proceeding from

CH. III.] DOG MADE SICK BY THE SMELL. 181

him is said to have been utterly beyond belief and
indescribable: from the following results pro-
duced by it J am assured but a faint notion of it
can be gained.
One day while my friend was out partridge-
shooting, the goat, who was disposed to be dis-
° gustingly familiar, came to such close quarters
that he gave him a kick, as the quickest means of
getting him out of the way. In doing this, his
trowsers having happened to come in contact with
the brute, they from this slight touch became
so contaminated, that, although he did not put
them on again until the ensuing spring, he then
not only found them to be still unwearable in
consequence of the smell, but after divers mea-
sures had been taken with a view to their purifi-
cation, the attempt was relinquished as altogether
hopeless, and he had them destroyed. And this
odour was not only intolerable to human kind,
but the very dogs were made sick by it, a fact to
which a brother of my friend, who fell in with the
goat another day, while out shooting, bears wit-
ness, in answer to a question from me, as follows:
— “Touching the goat, I personally saw a dog, a
spaniel, give up hunting, ‘cling’ its tail, and run
off towards home, giving every sign of being about

182 BIRDS FASCINATED BY HUMAN EYE. [PART II,

to vomit. Whether he really did so I did not
observe. It was not until we had gone some dis-
tance that the dog would do anything (in the way
of work) again.” I had previously always ima-
gined dogs to be stink-proof. It must indeed have
been one of no ordinary intensity which could
thus affect them.

The fascination which the human eye exercises
upon birds is very remarkable, and is susceptible
of the following simple proof, which I found out
in my bird-trap-setting days. If you hold a Robin
steadily by the upper part of the legs a few inches
from your face and look fixedly at him, you will
obtain complete possession of his attention, and
his eyes will become riveted upon yours. If then,
keeping your hand perfectly still, you move your
face away from him, he will protrude his head to
its utmost stretch; and in a similar manner, on
your advancing your head, he will again withdraw
his, so as to keep his eyes, as far as possible, at
the same distance from yours. It may be as well
to be careful as to the choice of the kind of bird
upon which such an experiment is tried, as some
of the hard-billed birds might be inclined to
reverse the order of things, and try their own
powers upon your eyes. A Heron, for instance,

CH. III. ] CHARMING AWAY WARTS, &c. 183

would probably make himself a peculiarly dis-
agreeable subject.

If birds are thus susceptible of the influence
of the human eye, may there not possibly be some
truth in the popular idea that they are charmed
or fascinated by that of the Snake?

Among the uneducated classes in the Isle of
Wight, in common probably with those of other
districts, the belief that diseases can be “charmed
away” still prevails to no inconsiderable extent.
Although I believe that other infirmities are at
times similarly treated, yet rheumatism and warts
seem to be those as to which the remedy is sup-
posed to be peculiarly efficacious.

The “charmers” being naturally anxious to
keep their secret, if they have one, and if they
have not, to make up for the want of it by an
appearance of mystery—while their patients, sus-
pecting that the educated classes look upon the
“charm” as a remnant of superstition, and fear-
ing that they may, by avowing their belief in it,
expose themselves to ridicule, are somewhat dis-
inclined to talk freely on the subject—there is
some difficulty in obtaining information as to the
process by which it is supposed to be effected.
It appears, however, to consist in uttering certain

184 APPARENTLY SUCCESSFUL. [PART II.

cabalistic words over the patient, counting the
warts, when warts are treated for, and placing
straws across the part affected, the straws being
subsequently deposited in a secret place known
only to the charmer. In cases where an arm is
affected, a string is also occasionally tied round
the wrist.

Whether the effects ascribed to the virtues of
the charms are in fact attributable to the indirect
influence of the imagination, or otherwise, we need
not here inquire ; but the fact that the art, if it
may be so called, is still practised, is probably a
sufficient proof that the results derived from it
are occasionally, at any rate, considered satis-
factory.

I myself know of one instance, in which the
cure was so rapid and perfect, that any doctor
might have pointed to it with pride as a con-
vincing proof of the efficacy of his treatment. It
was a case of warts; the patient being a little
girl of about seven or eight years old, the daughter
of a servant in our family. She came up one day
to the house for some work, when the lady, who
was giving it to her, having remarked that her
hands were covered with bad warts, and noticed
the fact to her, she said, “Yes, ma’am, but I’m

CH. 111.] | FANCIES TAKEN BY ANIMALS. 185

going to have them charmed away in a day or
two.” “Very well,” answered the lady, glad to
have the opportunity of convincing the child that
the whole thing was a delusion, “when they are
charmed away, come and shew me your hands.”
But about six weeks had elapsed after this had
taken place, when she was again told that the
girl wished to see her. She was accordingly
shewn up, when she said, “If you please, maam,
you told me to come and shew you my hands
when the warts were charmed away, and, you
see, ma'am, theyre all gone now.” This, it must
be confessed, was rather a “sell” for the lady;
however, the fact being undeniable, all she could
do under the circumstances was to say that it was
a very good thing that she had got rid of them,
and that she was very glad of it.

T am told that in Sussex, where “charming” is
also much resorted to for the cure of warts, the
process of counting them is the part of the charm
which is apparently the most relied on.

Domestic animals not unfrequently contract
sudden fancies for, and occasionally as sudden
aversions to particular individuals, in a strange
manner, the latter being apparently more difficult
to understand than the former. Doubtless some-

186 ANECDOTE OF SPANIEL— [PART II.

thing or other has passed through the animals’
minds, which, could we know what it was, would
fully account for this conduct on their part, while
to those unacquainted with the cause, they ap-
pear to be actuated solely by caprice. The fol-
lowing instances have happened to occur within
my own knowledge :—A brother of mine, when in
the army, had a very favourite little Spaniel which
was devotedly attached to him, and his constant
companion. During a visit of a few days how-
ever, which I paid him, when quartered in Cork,
and on the eve of embarkation for foreign service,
the dog took such an extraordinary fancy to me,
that he decidedly preferred my company to that
of my brother, and indeed quite deserted him
for me. On my leaving to return to England
my brother kindly gave him to me, and he as
a matter of course followed me on board the
steamer, leaving my brother standing on the
quay. The steamer sheered off, and proceeded
on her course, but no sooner did the dog per-
ceive that he was really to be separated from
his old master, than all his former affection for
him appeared to return in its full force ; in every
way in which a dog can express contrition he
seemed to do so for his error in having forsaken

CH. ITI. | OF SQUIRREL—OF MACAW. 187

him for me; and I was actually obliged to hold
him, in order to prevent him from jumping over-
board to rejoin him. I had him (poor Crick!) for
some years afterwards, until one unlucky day,
when, during my absence from home, he was
taken out rabbit-shooting by the servants, and a
stray shot ended his existence.

The brother, whom I have just mentioned, had
also a tame Squirrel, which he used generally to
feed himself, and invariably treated with the
greatest kindness. For some time (two or three
years I believe) the squirrel was extremely fond
of him, as it was of his wife, and would allow
them to do anything with it, running all over
them, and not exhibiting the slightest symptom
of fear or mistrust. Suddenly however, and with-
out any apparent cause, it took the greatest pos-
sible aversion to him, flying at him when it was
let loose, and biting him in a most savage manner.
I have seen his hands streaming with blood from
the effect of its bites. For my sister-in-law, on
the contrary, it always manifested the greatest
affection, and never shewed the slightest alteration
in its feeling towards her.

With a Macaw belonging to us I used to be on
the best of terms, and he always appeared very

188 ATTACHMENT OF KITTEN. [PART It,

fond of me, until I was entirely supplanted in
his affections by the butler. Even then we were
very good friends so long as the butler was not
in the room, but the moment he made his ap-
pearance, the bird seemed to be seized with a
feeling of the greatest possible hostility towards
me, attempting to bite me, and shewing his ani-
mosity in a most decided manner. On these oc-
casions I generally abstained from putting my
fingers too close to him, but once, having on a
thick velveteen shooting-coat, besides shirt and
flannel-waiscoat, I thought I might venture to
test his disposition by offering him my arm in
an amicable manner. Had the butler not been
there, he would at once have come on it, but, as
it was, he soon set all doubt at rest, by taking a
piece clean out of coat, shirt, flannel-waistcoat and
arm at one fell bite.

A Kitten once attached herself to me in a
manner which was certainly very remarkable, par-
ticularly as I do not remember ever to have cul-
tivated her affections by any other means than
those of simple kindness and attention.

The place where she was supposed to live of
a morning was a room appropriated to the lady’s-
maid, lying beyond a back-staircase, by which I

CH. IIl.] FRIENDS PARTED. 189

was in the habit of ascending to the room where
T used to sit. Being very fond of the maid as
well as of myself, she used to besport herself or
sleep contentedly enough in her room, and evinced
no desire to leave it, until she heard my step
approaching on my way up-stairs. She was then
up and after me in a moment, following me to
my room, and taking up her favourite position
on my table, where she used to sit, if I would
allow it, with her paw over my hand whilst I was
writing, a proceeding of which many a blot was the
consequence.

From the position of the lady’s-maid’s room,
it was impossible for the kitten to have seen
who was approaching the staircase, but her sense
of hearing was so acute, that, though many other
persons ascended it in the course of the morning,
she (as I was assured, and have no reason to dis-
believe) never attempted to move at the approach
of any other step than my own.

The bond of friendship which thus existed
between us was however condemned to be broken.
I was absent from home for a good while, during
which the kitten, having attained to the age of
cat-hood, retired from the upper part of the house,
where we should perhaps have revived our in-

190 CUR-BAPTISM. [PART II.

timacy, to the lower regions, and in due course
of time subsided into a vulgar good-tempered
kitchen cat, in which capacity I believe she still
survives.

Having alluded to my little dog “Crick,” I
cannot refrain, before taking leave of him here,
from mentioning the original method in which
he used to resent the impertinences of a small
cur, which was continually insulting his dignity
by running up and barking at him. When this
happened Crick used to “go in” at the offender,
as if determined to chastise him, which he would
perhaps have done, had not the other at once
cried “peccavi,” and deprecated his wrath by
lying down crouching on his back. I have heard
of a big dog under similar circumstances taking
up the small one, and dropping him into a dirty
puddle; but Crick, instead of total immersion,
adopted another kind of baptism, the appliances
for which were always at hand, and which cer-
tainly served in a most unmistakable way to ex-
press his utter contempt for his tormentor ; walk-
ing off after it, back up and muscles all rigid,
without deigning another glance at his prostrate
victim. I have seen this happen over and over
again.

CH.I1I.] ODD PECULIARITIES OF SPANIEL. 191

Two other of his peculiarities may perhaps be
also worth recording. One of these was his ex-
treme sensitiveness in point of “ear” for music.
If he were lying fast asleep in the drawing-room,
and two or three discords were (purposely) struck
on the piano, he would instantly jump up, and
express his horror of them by a dismal whine.
The other was his dislike to have anything float-
ing about in his “tea.” I have seen him start
back and growl at a tea-twig (in nursery parlance
“stranger’) which happened to come to the sur-
face whilst he was drinking it.

CHAPTER IV.

Buzzards—pair of—anecdote as to—Return of Migratory
Birds to same haunts—Same harbour holds Trout of
same size—Starlings—breeding of in the Isle of Wight—
large flock of—Visitation of Buntings—Increase of Wood
Pigeons—Their numbers fluctuate—Stock Dove.

FINE Buzzard was towards the end of De-
cember 1856, shot by the tenant on a farm
situated on the north side of the Island. There
was another in company with it, which he said
he could also have killed had he had a double
gun with him instead of a single. About a fort-
night after this happened, whilst a party were
shooting about a couple of miles from the place,
one of the beaters picked up another buzzard
just dead, and still warm, but exhibiting no ap-
parent cause for its death. It had not been shot
at by any of the party. On examining it, I found
that one of its feet was contracted, to such an
extent that it could not be opened, and was con-
sequently led to suppose that this might have

CH. IV.] ANECDOTE OF BUZZARDS. 193

been the bird seen in company with the other,
to which it might, being disabled from catering
for itself, have been indebted for its means of
sustenance. If such had been the case, it would
probably in about that time after the death of
its companion have pined away and died from
want. It was very poor, though perhaps not quite
such a skeleton as might have been expected if
its death had resulted simply from starvation.
There used to be a good many Buzzards in
that part of the country until within the last
forty or fifty years. An old gamekeeper on the
property where the two last mentioned were found,
on whose word I could most thoroughly depend,
has told me that a pair used to build every year
in a particular tree in a covert three or four miles
from the farm last mentioned, and that, as re-
gularly, he used to destroy at least one, if not
both of the old birds. He assured me, however,
that the fact of his having killed both the old birds
made not the slightest difference, and that the
following year another pair invariably built or
reconstructed their nest in the same tree. This,
he told me, went on for a good many years, until
the tree in which the birds had been accustomed to
build was cut down, when, with it, the attraction
)

194 RETURN OF BIRDS TO SAME HAUNTS. [PART IT.

which had brought them into the neighbourhood
apparently ceased to exist, for from that time he
had never seen a single individual of the species.
Those which I have mentioned as making their
appearance in 1856 are the only specimens that
J remember ever to have heard of in the Island
since he told me this some fifteen or eighteen
years ago.

The instinct which led the Buzzards (in the
instance I have mentioned) to seek out a particular
tree as peculiarly apt for the purposes of building,
is certainly very remarkable, but it is perhaps
scarcely more so than that which induces some—
most indeed, I believe I may say—of our migra-
tory birds to return to (or rather haunt) the same
localities year after year in almost precisely the
same numbers. I may instance Woodcocks, and
shall, I am sure, be borne out in my assertion by
the experience of all sportsmen who have oppor-
tunities for forming an opinion, when I say that
uot only the same coverts, but the same parts of
those coverts, will almost invariably be found at
the same season to produce very nearly the same
number, it being perfectly immaterial whether the
whole of the contingent furnished by it the pre-
ceding year had been killed off or not.

CH. IV.] PEREGRINE FALCONS—STARLINGS. 195

But one pair of Peregrine Falcons has, it is
said (and, so far as I am able to make out, cor-
rectly), ever been known to breed at one time in
the cliffs at Freshwater. Every year the nest is
robbed by the fishermen, who get good prices for
both eggs and young birds, and none of the latter
are therefore ever suffered to escape. Frequently
one of the old birds has been shot, and occa-
sionally both have shared the same fate while
engaged in nesting there, but none of these cir-
cumstances has ever made the slightest difference,
and the due appearance of a pair at the breeding
season has never been interrupted.

The mysterious way in which Trout appear to
become acquainted with the fact that a vacancy
has occurred behind a particular stone, or other
favourite harbour, has, I dare say, struck other
fishermen besides myself, who will doubtless have
noticed how invariably such a locality is the haunt
of a “good fish,” the tenant in occupation being
very frequently about the same size as his pre-
decessor.

Formerly such a thing as a Starling’s nest was
(I believe) unknown in the Isle of Wight. Now
they breed there in great numbers, scarcely a
convenient hole in tree or thatch being without

02

196 STARLINGS BREEDING—VAST FLOCK OF. [PART II.

its nest. The first instance in which I ever heard
of their doing so was between thirty and forty years
ago, when the coachman of the late Sir John Bar-
rington, having brought with him from Essex a nest
of young Starlings as a curiosity, was told that a
nest had just been discovered near Newchurch.
They have ever since remained to breed in the
Island in gradually increasing numbers, but it is
only within the last fifteen or twenty years that
they have done so nearly to such an extent as
at present.

I saw on the 18th of November, 1852, in the
Island, a flock of Starlings far exceeding in num-
bers any that had ever before come under my own
observation, or that of any of the party who were
with me. It would be impossible to form an esti-
mate of their numbers, but they blackened a very
large extent (several acres I should think) of the
field on which they had alighted. One of our
party fired at them at an enormous distance, and
knocked down about sixteen, a number which he
would probably have more than doubled, but that
he, not seeing the main body, fired his first barrel
at a small detachment. It seemed to be their
first and only appearance, for I could never hear
that this vast flock was ever seen again.

CH. Iv.] VISITATION OF BUNTINGS. 197

On my return from abroad (I think in the year
1845), I found that the western part of the Island
had been visited, about the month of March,
during a cold backward spring, by multitudes of
a small bird, which were described as about the
size of, and scarcely distinguishable from, Titlarks,
and to which the labourers gave the odd name of
“Norway Widgeons,’ why I never could under-
stand, nor they explain. They were subsequently
found dead in great numbers along the shore on
the south side of the Island, from which circum-
stance it would appear that they were immigrants,
who had come to us 7 transitu, and failed in their
attempt to proceed further. During their tem=
porary residence in the Island they caused great
havoc among the young green crops. I endea-
voured, but without success, to obtain a specimen
of them, and was therefore unable to ascertain
the species with any certainty. A friend of mine,
who saw them, imagines that they were Titlarks.
I am myself rather inclined to fancy they must
have been Buntings.

The number of Woodpigeons has of late years
decidedly increased very largely in the Island ; nor
is this increase, I believe, confined to that locality,
as I have repeatedly heard the same fact noticed

198 INCREASE OF WOODPIGEONS. [PART II.

in other parts of England. That this should be
the case is certainly not a little extraordinary, for,
considering that the number of eggs in each nest
is limited to two, and that these, from their colour,
from the loose fabric of the nest, and the compa-
ratively slight attempt to conceal it by the parent
birds, are perhaps more easily discoverable by their
biped enemies, winged and human, than those of
any other bird; that the Woodpigeon itself is,
from its fondness for ripe corn and green crops
(particularly turnips) very obnoxious to the
farmer, at whose hands it consequently meets with
but little mercy; and finally that it is universally
appreciated for the table; one might naturally at
first sight suppose that there was no bird a
gradual decrease in whose numbers might be pre-
dicted with greater confidence.

In the Isle of Wight (and perhaps the same
observation may apply to other parts of the coun-
try as well) I believe this singular increase in the
number of Woodpigeons is mainly owing to the
increase which has taken place of late years in the
cultivation of the turnip-crop, the leaf of that
plant during the winter, and indeed as long after
it as any remain in the ground, constituting by
far the principal part of their food. Although they:

CH. Iv.] HOW ACCOUNTED FOR. 199

are blamed for attacking the root as well as the
leaf, yet they are guiltless of the charge. Their
bills would not be strong enough to enable them
to commence operations on one, even if so dis-
posed, and the utmost harm they could do it,
would be to pick off a loose piece, when the root
had been previously scarified. At any rate, I have
never seen a particle of the root in their crops,
which are often distended with the leaf to such an
extent that the protuberance caused by it shews
conspicuously even at a distance when they are on
the wing. The Rooks are the real culprits who have
to answer for the deep holes bored in the roots,
a fact of which any one may satisfy himself, by
at any time during the winter examining the
ground under the trees in which they roost at
night.

But to return from this apologetic digression.
That the Woodpigeon is to some extent migratory,
cannot, I think, be doubted. My impression with
regard to this increase in their numbers is there-
fore, generally, that whereas formerly only so
many of those, who came as occasional visitors to
the Island, remained there, as found they could
readily obtain food, the rest migrating elsewhere
when it became scarce; of late years, since the

200 THEIR NUMBERS FLUCTUATE. [PART II.

increase in the cultivation of the turnip-crop, the
immigrants, finding that there was an ample
supply of food for them, as well as the native
birds, and finding the place suit them in other
respects (as, for instance, affording plenty of
covert, and that, or at least a large proportion of
it, but little disturbed), were induced to prolong
their stay throughout the winter, and thus became
naturalized there.

Their numbers still occasionally vary. During
the years 1849 and 1850 I noticed that they ap-
peared to be not nearly so numerous as during
some preceding and the subsequent years. Why
this should have been the case I do not know, for
there was no perceptible diminution in the usual
turnip-crop, nor apparently any other reason by
which it could be accounted for.

Still, each year, about the end of October or
the commencement of November, a large propor-
tion of the Woodpigeons appear to leave the island,
returning again in about two months to their old
haunts. During this period they are, I have but
little doubt, absent on an excursion to the New
Forest in search of beech-mast, perhaps their
most favourite food, which is supplied there in
greater quantities than the Island affords, and

CH. Iv.] FLIGHTS OF STOCK DOVES. 201

whither these birds resort, I am told, in great
numbers at that season.

The Stock Dove is surprisingly rare in the Isle
of Wight, considering how widely the range of
that bird extends, and the fact that it is not unfre-
quently met with along the western part of the
coast of Hampshire. I believe I have never myself
seen one of these birds or heard its note in the
Island, nor have I ever heard of any being seen
there, except on two occasions, these occurring as
far back as about thirty-six and eighteen years
ago respectively, and both in the neighbourhood
of Brixton. They were described to me by two
intelligent men, who saw them, as coming in great
numbers “like a cloud of Rooks” from a north-
easterly direction, pitching “under the down,”
and feeding onwards, without altering their course,
the hindmost birds flying over the heads of the
advanced column, and feeding in front, until they
were, in their turn, similarly passed by the rear-
guard, as Starlings may be observed sometimes to
do. This desultory mode of settling is by the way,
I apprehend, exactly what Homer meant by the
word, wpoxa0itovrwy, in his graphic description of
waterfowl, J7. B. 459—463. I have, of course, no
positive proof that the birds of which these flocks

202 STOCK DOVE. [PART II.

were composed were of the Stock Dove species
(Columba cenas), but conclude that such was the
case from the description given me of some which

were killed.

CHAPTER V.

Rarer Birds visitors to the Isle of Wight—Spoon-bill—Red-
necked Phalarope — Bittern — Gannet — White-fronted
(Laughing) Goose— Black Redstart —Common Ditto—
Hoopoe—Snow Bunting—Cirl Bunting— Brambling—
Merlin — Hobby — Grossbeak — Wryneck — Grasshopper
Warbler—Stone Curlew —Dotterel— Ring Dotterel and
Ox-bird—Grey Plover—Golden Plover—Protest against
killing rare Birds.

MONG the rarer birds which have come
within my own knowledge as visitors to the
Isle of Wight are the following :—

The Spoonbill. The Red-necked Phalarope
(Phalaropus hyperboreus). The Bittern (at least
two instances). The Gannet ;—one of these birds
was in December, 1853, after a storm of unusual
violence, found by some boys going to plough at
a distance of several miles from the sea: it was
unable to fly more than a short distance, and they
soon ran it down, when they “disarmed the
terrors of its beak” by running a knife into its
throat. Another of these birds had been, singu-

204 RARER BIRDS IN ISLE OF WIGHT. [PART IL.

larly enough, found under similar circumstances
only about three weeks before, within a mile of
the same place. The White-fronted or Laughing
Goose (Anser albifrons). The Black Redstart (Pha-
nicura tithys), (two shot the same day, about 1850,
in the neighbourhood of the Undercliff): of its
cogener, the common Redstart, though so much
more common in some localities than the black
variety, I believe I have never known above a
single specimen obtained in the Island. The
Hoopoe (several instances). The Snow Bunting
(Plectrophanes nivalis). The Cirl Bunting (Lm-
beriza cirlus) ;—I saw two of these birds feeding
together on the gravel-walk close to a house near
East Cowes, in February, 1858, and having watched
them for some time through a good glass, am
able to speak positively as to their identity. The
Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) I have also
seen on more than one occasion. Though I do
not remember to have heard of the Merlin for
some time past, yet until within the last few years
it was by no means an unfrequent occurrence for
one to pay the penalty to which his predatory
habits rendered him liable, I having been myself
on several occasions his executioner. The Hobby
appears to be much more rare in the Island than

CH. V.] GROSSBEAK—WRYNECK, &c, 205

the Merlin, though the converse is, I believe, the
case throughout the southern parts of Hampshire
and Dorsetshire. I can call to mind indeed but
a single instance of its being met with there.

The Grossbeak (Loxia coccothraustes) was,
some twenty or twenty-five years ago, very com-
mon during one or two winters, when my brothers
and I (as boys) used to shoot so many in common
with Blackbirds and Thrushes, that we scarcely
thought more of them than of those birds, and
many were the pies and roties to which they
contributed in no mean proportion. Since that
time, however, they have become comparatively
scarce, and two, or perhaps three, stragglers is the
most that I remember to have seen. The last was
in January or February 1858. The Wryneck
(Yunx torquilla—Vectict “Barley-bird”) used to
be one of our most regular visitors, but has gra-
dually become more and more rare, and we are
now scarcely ever greeted by his lively call. The
Grasshopper-warbler (Salicaria locustella) is not
common, and appears to confine himself exclu-
sively to particular spots. I know of only one
covert (of about four acres) in which he is to be
heard, but this apparently never fails to contain
one or two during the summer. Till within the

206 STONE CURLEW, DOTTEREL, &c. [PART II.

last twenty years, the Stone Curlew, a bird of many
aliases, but recognisable as Bewick’s Charadrius
cedicnemus, never failed to visit us during the
summer, confining himself principally to the
higher ground, where the plough had crept in
upon the central ridge of down which bisects
the Island. In common, however, with several
other species, this bird has almost ceased to visit
us, and until the year 1857, when three or four
were seen and two killed, several years had
elapsed since I had heard of the appearance of
one. It is long since I myself have heard their
wild whistle in the uplands. Of the Dotterel (Cha-
radrius morinellus) I have, to the best of my belief,
never met with above a single specimen in the
Island. The Ring Dotterel (Charadrius hiaticula—
Vectic® “ Bull-bird’’) occurs in considerable num-
bers, consorting with its friend the “Ox-bird”
(Tringa variabilis) along the muddy flats and
harbours on the western part of the north coast.
I believe I may also undertake to say positively
that I have in the same locality killed, when a boy,
several specimens of the Grey Plover (Squaterola
cinerea, Yarrell). I then imagined them to have
been Golden Plover (Charadrius pluvialis), but
have since been satisfied that I was mistaken. I

CH. V.] A PLEA FOR RARE BIRDS. 207

have, however, seen the Golden Plover on the
higher ground in the island, and known of several
instances where it has been shot.

There appears to exist too often an insane
desire to kill rare birds, for no other reason than
because they are rare, not with a view to add to
the stock of knowledge already possessed with
regard to the birds, but from a morbid wish to
gratify the vanity of the person who kills them.
This surely cannot be too much deprecated, for,
should the practice continue unchecked, in pro-
portion as each species gives way before the in-
crease of population, exactly in the same propor-
tion will the gun be raised against it, and thus the
present generation may live to lament the absence
of many familiar winged friends by which their
eyes and ears are now gladdened.

A picture appeared in Punch, a year or two
ago, representing two men of the “navvy” class,
watching a traveller quietly passing along the road
near them, one of whom says, “I say, Bill, yon’s
a stranger.’ Upon which his friend answers,
“Oh, is a? ’eave ’alf a brick at ’en then.’ Now
this, which is intended as a hit at the brutality
and inhospitality of some of our uneducated
classes (scarcely merited, I hope and believe), may,

208 PLEA FOR RARE BIRDS. [PART IL.

it strikes me, be deservedly applied to many of
our soi-disant naturalists, looking to their recep-
tion and treatment of any bird whose misfortune
it may be to be considered rare, and which may
be compelled by stress of weather, or induced
by other causes in misplaced confidence to visit
our shores. The intelligence that such an un-
happy immigrant has appeared is generally the
signal for every one who pretends to the slightest
knowledge of ornithology to turn out gun in
hand bent on its destruction, the excitement
of pursuit being probably only allayed by an an-
nouncement in the county paper headed, “Rare
Bird,” a too familiar type of which is as follows :—
“On Saturday last that enthusiastic and accom-
plished ornithologist, Mr Snooks, was so fortunate
as to obtain two specimens, male and female, of
that rare bird the Peregrinus jidens. They had
been for some time observed in the neighbourhood,
and many of our naturalists had been eagerly on
the watch to secure them. We heartily congra-
tulate our esteemed fellow-townsman on_ the
attainment of this trophy, which will serve to add
new lustre to his already celebrated name. From
the fact that the female bird had a feather in her
bill, when she was shot, there can be no doubt

CH. V.] PLEA FOR RARE BIRDS. 209

that these interesting visitors were in the act of
constructing a nest when they fell before Mr
Snooks’s unerring tube.”

It was not very long ago that I saw in The
Times a letter from a “naturalist,” relating how
a Harlequin-duck had visited his pond, and be- .
come quite domesticated there, swimming about
with his other ducks, and coming tamely to be
fed with them day after day. Of course this could
not be permitted: the poor Harlequin-duck was
much too rare to be allowed the common rites of
hospitality, so he was “secured,” and the perpe-
trator of the deed, apparently thinking he had
done a fine thing, actually wrote to The Times,
informing the civilised people of England of his
achievement, and evidently expecting to be be-
lauded on the strength of it. Another so-called
“naturalist’”’ similarly boasted through the me-
dium of a newspaper, that he had been so fortu-
nate as to “secure” (that seems the correct term)
a Nightingale, in the West of Devonshire, having
shot it whilst in the act of singing on the topmost
branch of a thorn-bush. Another instance of the
same kind has come within my own knowledge, |
where a person having been unsuccessful in his
attempts to approach a Stone Curlew, whose nest

P

210 PLEA FOR RARE BIRDS. [PART I,

he had found, laid wait in ambush, and “secured”
the mother-bird, by shooting her as she ran up
to it.

Now it is no doubt very interesting to know
that a Harlequin-duck has visited such or such a
locality, and still more so that it has been so far
reconciled to the presence of man, as to become,
to a certain extent, domesticated ; but could not
these facts be established without the sacrifice of
the poor lone .vanderer? Again, from the remark-
able fact that Nightingales are very rarely found
west of particular boundaries, it is certainly a
note-worthy incident when one has deviated from
the law which seems to keep them to the east of
those limits; but surely the last-mentioned “na-
turalist” might have been satisfied with his own
evidence or that of his friends, in proof of the
poor bird’s visit, without killing it. How can the
Devonshire people expect to have their ears glad-
dened with the bird’s sweet song, if that is the
way they welcome the casual visitors of the spe-
cies? Of birds which formerly were comparatively
abundant in the British Islands, one or two species
may be said to have disappeared from amongst us,
whilst of others not a few now make their appear-
ance only at distant and uncertain intervals, too

CH. V.] PLEA FOR RARE BIRDS. 211

many of them, alas! never to return to the country
which afforded them the shelter they have been
here denied. Were such occasional visitors pro-
tected, instead of being hunted to the death, as
they are at present, it is not only possible, but, I
think, probable, that some at least might be
induced to remain permanently with us, and thus
become naturalised in our Islands, while others, of
the purely migratory class, might return periodi-
cally to our shores in increasing numbers. I
would not go the length of saying that an excep-
tional case may not now and then occur, when the
ends of science may be advanced by the acquisi-
tion of an individual of rare or doubtful species,
but I should indeed be glad if my humble voice
could be echoed by a general protest against the
indiscriminate destruction of birds merely because
they are rare.

P2

CHAPTER VI.

Tameness of Animals on Sundays—Anecdotes as to Horses—
Spaniel —Pomeranian Dog—WNote of Peewit —Grass
scarified by Rooks—Bareness at base of Rook’s bill—
Infants— Young Asses— Young Elephants— Lofty fight
of Moorhens at night—Land-rail— Quail— W oodcock—
carries young from place to place—Snipe—Squirrels—
Nuts and Nutshells on Down—Star on Hare's forehead—
Sparrows congregating in hard weather.

HE tameness of animals on Sundays, in coun-

tries where the day is strictly observed, as
contrasted with their comparative wildness on
other days, is, I think, so remarkable as scarcely
to admit of a doubt. As it can scarcely be
imagined that their instinct can lead them to
mark the regular recurrence of the day, and their
immunity during it from pursuit and danger, it
must probably be accounted for by the fact that,
labour being suspended, a general stillness per-
vades the country, insensibly conveying to their
minds a sense of security. Domestic animals,
however—and those particularly which are most

CH. VI.] TAMENESS OF ANIMALS ON SUNDAYS. 213

closely associated with us, and as it were form
part of our families—become, I am persuaded,
perfectly aware of the regular advent of Sunday,
and not unfrequently shew that this is the case,
by voluntarily adapting themselves to the require-
ments of the day. There would probably be no
difficulty in collecting a sufficiency of instances in
support of this theory to establish it, but I will
just mention the two following which happen to
occur to me. The Carriage-horses of a friend of
mine were accustomed on week-days to take their
mistress out for an early drive before luncheon,
while on the Sunday they enjoyed a perfect rest.
On the week-days they never thought of lying
down in the morning before the time when they
usually went out, but on the Sunday mornings
they invariably did so, as if determined to make
the most of their day’s rest. I supposed that they
might have been induced to do this in consequence
of their beds being made up earlier on those days,
or of some other departure from the usual rou-
tine of the stable arrangements, but I was told
that no variation of the kind was ever made.

A King Charles’ Spaniel belonging to a lady,
a relation of my own, was constantly in the habit
of attending her when she went out driving, and,

214 ANECDOTES OF DOGS. [PART Il.

if it was wished that he should not accompany her,
it was necessary to shut him up to prevent him
from doing so. On Sundays she went to teach at
the village-school, where his presence was of
course undesirable. To my surprise one Sunday
morning I saw her preparing for a start to the
school, leaving “Beau” at liberty in the dining-
room, which was on the ground-floor, opening on
the carriage-drive by which she would leave the
house. I was proceeding to shut him up, when
she said, “Oh you need not trouble yourself to do
that; he knows quite well that it is Sunday, and
won't attempt to go with me.” She was perfectly
right, Beau sat in a chair, watching her through
the open window as she drove off, looking the
picture of mortified resignation, but not offering
to quit his place, though he had not been told to
remain there. .

A more remarkable story has been handed
down from the last generation in our family,
which, although I cannot vouch for its authen-
ticity, I fully believe. In this instance, it was a
favourite Pomeranian Dog, who having been several
times prevented from following the family to
church, a distance of about a mile and a half from
the house, used to start some time before them,

CH. V1.] PEEWIT OR PEWIT? 215

and, getting into their pew, remain perdu there
until they came, when it was thought better to
allow him to remain quietly where he was, than
make a disturbance by turning him out.

It was remarked to me by a farmer one day,
when, whilst out with the hounds, we came across
a flock of Peewits, “It's a bad sign to see they
birds” —explaining his meaning to be that they
generally haunt only poor, bad land, in which he
was certainly correct.

In the Isle of Wight (and indeed I believe
generally in the South of England) these birds are
invariably called by the lower orders not “Pee-
wits’ but “ Pewits,’ and I am inclined to think
that they are right; for, although the bird does
vary its note, and at times, particularly when pur-
suing a straight course in company with others,
occasionally gives utterance to a note resembling
“pee-wit,” yet Iam mistaken, if, generally, when
circling round an intruder (at which times its cry is
louder and more marked than at others) the cry
does not more nearly approach to “pew-it,” greater
stress being laid on the lower note in the early part
of the cry than on the higher one which concludes it,

I was walking one day with a gentleman over
his home-farm, when we observed the grass on

216 GRASS SCARIFIED BY ROOKS. [PART II.

about an acre of meadow-land to be so completely
rooted up and scarified, that he took it for granted
it had been done under the bailiff’s direction to
clear it from moss, and on arriving at the farm
inquired whether such was not the case. The
answer, however, was “Oh, no, Sir, we haven't
been at work there at all; it’s the Rooks done all
that.” The mistake was a very natural one, for
though I have often seen places where grass has
been pulled up by rooks, yet I never saw such
clean or wholesale work done by them as on this
occasion. It could not apparently have been exe-
cuted more systematically or perfectly by the most
elaborate “scarifier” that Crosskill or Ransome
could turn out. On examining the spot after-
wards I found that the object of the rooks’ re-
searches had doubtless been a small white grub,
numbers of which still remained in the ground a
short distance below the surface. In the following
spring I noticed that the part of the field where
this had taken place was densely covered with
cowslips, much more so than the rest of it. Pos-
sibly the roots of these plants may have been the
proper food for the grubs, and therefore selected
by the parent insect as receptacles for her eggs.

A sharpish controversy has been maintained

CH. VI.] BARENESS AT BASE OF ROOK’S BILL. 217

amongst naturalists, as to whether the bareness
of the Rook’s bill is, as Bewick says, “an original
peculiarity,” or whether the feathers which at first
grow on its base are worn off by contact with the
soil into which it is constantly thrust. It seems to
me that those who hold the former theory have
the best of the argument, but as the only way of
proving which is in the right would be to confine
rooks from their infancy in a place where they
could not possibly have access to mould, or other
substance by which the bill-feathers could be
rubbed off, it will probably be some time before
the question is solved. Yarrell mentions that
“two or three other birds (not British) are now
known to exhibit this peculiarity of losing the
bill-feathers,’ but we might go nearer home for a
case, in which something analogous occurs, that
of babies, on whose foreheads at their birth is
visible a distinct down, which shortly afterwards
disappears. Nor is this peculiarity noticeable only
in babies: every one must have observed how much
more woolly the heads of young asses are than
those of older ones, and Sir J. Emerson Tennent in
his interesting Work on Ceylon (Vol. 1. p. 385,
note) similarly remarks that, “the young elephants,
when captured, are frequently covered with a

218 FLIGHT OF MOORHENS AT NIGHT. [PART IT.

woolly fleece, especially about the head and
shoulders.”

Others, besides myself, have probably noticed
how suddenly and mysteriously Moorhens will
sometimes disappear from a piece of water, espe-
cially if they have been disturbed by the cutting
of the wood on its banks or other causes. There
can be no difficulty in accounting for this, if, as
I am persuaded, they occasionally take at night
much more extensive flights than their general
habits would lead one to suppose probable. Un-
less there is any other bird, of which I am igno-
rant, whose cry precisely resembles that of the
Moorhen, I am positive that I have several times
heard them on wing at night high overhead, three
of the occasions being very remarkable, namely,
while they were passing over Christ Church (Ox-
ford), Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and Blackfriars Bridge.
Of course it is possible that I may have been mis-
taken, but I am so intimately acquainted with the
cry of the bird that it would be very difficult to
satisfy me that such was the case.

That they may have the power of taking such
extensive flights may, I think, be easily conceded,
when it is remembered that the Landrail, whose
power of wing scarcely, if at all, exceeds that of

CH. VI.] LANDRAIL—QUAIL. 219

the Moorhen, cannot reach these shores without
crossing, at least, some twenty miles of water.

I have heard similar strange stories of the dis-
appearance of Dabchicks (Podiceps minor) from
inland ponds, taking with them their young which
had only been hatched a few days.

The Landrail is tolerably abundant in the
Isle of Wight, where I have indeed two or three
times heard of their being met with in considerable
numbers. A gentleman of my acquaintance as-
sures me that in the year 1853 he, with the assist-
ance of another gun, killed in one day, near
Shanklin, nineteen and a half brace before lun-
cheon, and another day twelve brace ; and again,
last year, 1858, a relation of my own killed eight
and a half brace in one field. These large bags
were of course made early in the season, it being
arare circumstance, as elsewhere, for even a soli-
tary straggler to be fallen in with after the cold
weather has set in. On the 2nd of January, how-
ever (I think in 1848), I shot, out of a thick stub-
ble, one of these birds in perfect condition and
plumage.

Quails are very scarce with us, and are becom-
ing increasingly so. A bevy is occasionally heard
of, but that is all.

220 WOODCOCK BREEDING—CARRYING YOUNG. [PART II.

The Island, in proportion to its size, affords:
probably more than its share of Woodcocks. Al-
though comparatively few of them remain to breed
there, yet such an occurrence is by no means un-
common. Indeed, I have scarcely ever known a
summer pass by, without hearing of one or more
of their nests. In April, 1834, a woodcock rose
before a keeper of ours in such a way that he
thought she was crippled, and consequently shot
her. He however found, too late, that this im-
perfect flight was assumed for the purpose of
diverting his attention from her young ones, of
which he discovered four by their “peeping,” and
brought them up to the house. They might then
have been about a fortnight old. We tried to rear
them, and, from the readiness with which they fed
on worms, &c. thought we might have succeeded.
However, they unfortunately died one after the
other, the last survivor only living about a fort-
night. The fact of the Woodcock conveying its
young from place to place in its claws seems to
be now undoubtedly established. I know of two
instances where this has been seen to occur. One
of the persons who witnessed it is a keeper who
told me he was close to the bird, and could not
possibly have been mistaken.

CH. VI.] SNIPES—SQUIRRELS. 221

I believe I have never heard of Snipes breeding
in the Island, but I shot one, I am ashamed to say,
some years ago, on the 24th of April, when he
ought to have been thinking about a nest. I
could, however, find no trace of one where he
rose. They have never been very abundant with
us, and, having been of late years gradually “ dried
out” by (as a sportsman would say) the fatal in-
roads of drainage, from many places which formerly
held them, there are now comparatively few to be
met with, and those generally only within circum-
scribed limits, and under favourable circumstances.

Squirrels, which are now tolerably abundant in
the quiet woodlands of the Isle of Wight, were, it
is believed, first introduced there by the late Sir
John Barrington, about fifty or sixty years ago.
The act caused great excitement at the time, it
being reported that Sir John “had been and
brought in foxes,” then proscribed animals. Foxes
however were actually introduced about fifteen
years ago, and a well ordered pack of hounds,
affording excellent sport, is the consequence.

I am afraid Squirrels are mischievous little
fellows, and as bad gamekeepers as they are gar-
deners, having, I fancy, a partiality for eggs as
well as fruit. However, I would willingly remain

222 NUTS AND NUTSHELLS ON DOWN. [PART II.

blind to these failings, and great must be the
provocation which would induce me to lift my
hand against them.

One, a year or two ago, happening to find a hole
just large enough to admit him in the window
of our apple-loft, and probably smelling apples,
managed by the help of a convenient vine to effect
an entrance, and constantly repeating his visits,
used to bring out apples, pears, or anything else
which he happened to fancy there, and which he
could squeeze through the aperture, until his de-
predations became so extensive that the gardener
thought it was time to interfere, and called in the
aid of the glazier.

Great quantities of nut-shells, which have been
opened and emptied of their contents (evidently
by Mice) are to be found scattered over the face
of a down, nearly surrounded by coverts, in our
neighbourhood, many at a distance of perhaps a
hundred and fifty or two hundred yards from the
nearest covert; the greater proportion appearing
to be left, I think, in the vicinity of rabbit-holes,
but where I looked in vain for any signs of a
colony of mice. Late in the autumn many
full and good nuts may be found similarly scat-
tered over the down, as if they had been brought

CH. VI.] STAR IN HARE’S FOREHEAD. 223

thither and forgotten, or left for a future time.
T am a loss to conceive the inducement which leads
the mice to bring them so far from the coverts, to
a place where they have apparently no regular
harbour, instead of eating them quietly in the
shelter of the covert where they find them.

There is a popular notion, which I believe is
rather general, that the white star which is some-
times seen in the Hare’s forehead is a sign that
there were more than one in the litter. It is not
likely that any such distinction should exist, but
a keeper told me, in proof of the theory, that he
had once found a litter of four, just laid down,
all of which were thus marked.

It is curious to observe how the approach of
hard weather is heralded by the flocking together
of House Sparrows in rick-yards. This was very
noticeable in the spring of 1853, when, after the
severe frost and snow of the winter had passed
away, and given place to more genial weather,
scarcely a sparrow was to be seen in the home-
steads. Suddenly however they were again filled
with large flocks of them, and within two days
after, on the 19th of March, came a biting easterly
wind and heavy fall of snow, accompanied by a
frost of from 4° to 6°, which lasted several days.

CHAPTER VII.

Singular effect of Storm—Great discharge of Sap from
Trees—Growth of Cedar of Lebanon—of other Trees—
Changes in Pond-weeds—Sotl collected at mouths of
Worm-holes—Maggots from Sea-weed—Disease among
Partridges—Boy and Wasps—Midges—Birds on Scotch
Sea-lochs—Herons in Loch Duich—Mortality among Sea-
birds— Skeletons of Weasels in Ricks--Rats.

N the 10th of August, 1852, a tremendous

storm of wind from the south-west, accom-
panied by rain, swept over the whole of the south
coast of England, and in the Isle of Wight en-
tirely killed the leaf wherever it was exposed to
its fury. It soon however became manifest that
the sap was inclined to reassert its creative power,
and in due time afterwards, wherever the old leaf
had been destroyed, its place was taken by a new
one. The foliage of the trees until quite late in
the autumn displayed in consequence a very re-
markable contrast, that facing the south-west
exhibiting the light green leaf of the second

CH. VII.] GREAT DISCHARGE OF SAP. 225

growth in all its freshness, while that on the op-
posite side, having been smitten, though not killed,
by the storm, was completely seared and brown.
This reaction was not confined to the forest-trees,
those of smaller growth, such as the lilac and
laburnum, having also taken a new lease of life,
and reappeared in bloom towards the end of Sep-
tember and the beginning of October.

The discharge of sap resulting from the sever-
ance of roots or branches of trees is sometimes
so extraordinary as almost to exceed belief.
Some notion of the quantity which thus escapes
may however be gathered from the two following
rather remarkable instances :—

I had noticed that a part of a friend’s lawn,
to the extent of about two feet in diameter had
become suddenly converted into a regular quag-
mire, so saturated with moisture, that, on a stick
being thrust into it and withdrawn, the hole thus
made was instantly filled with liquid, such liquid
being dark in colour and offensive in smell.

The conclusion naturally drawn from these
circumstances was that some old and forgotten
drain (probably leading from the stables, which
were at no great distance) had become choked,
and broken up there; and accordingly my friend,

Q

226 GROWTH OF CEDAR OF LEBANON. [PART II.

who had an orthodox horror of “defective drain-
age,” at once had an opening made in the spot, with
a view of ascertaining the cause and remedying
the evil. On this being done however, it was dis-
covered that the quagmire had been caused sim-
ply and exclusively by the oozings from a single
elm-root, a part of which had been cut off in
consequence of its projecting from the ground,
and thus interfering with the operations of the
men engaged in mowing the turf. The colour
and smell of the sap must, I imagine, be attri-
butable to its having become decomposed after it
had left the root.

On another occasion I saw perfect puddles
formed by the constant dripping of sap from two
or three broken twigs of a young and vigorous
walnut-tree ; and that too in freshly dug mould,
where the soil was naturally rather dry than other-
wise.

The growth of the Cedar of Lebanon, so far
from being slow as might naturally be expected
from its general appearance, and the close texture
of its wood, is in fact much more rapid than
that of many of our other forest-trees. There is
one standing in the Isle of Wight, the girth of
which, at one foot from the ground—the spring.

CH. VII.] GROWTH OF OTHER TREES. 227

of the branches prevents a fair measurement from
being taken higher up—was on the 4th of February,
1852, fourteen feet three inches, and on the 17th
of February, 1857, fifteen feet one inch. This tree
two old men about the place assured me they
remembered when recently planted, and tied to a
stick for support, their evidence being given quite
independently of each other, and the only dis-
crepancy between them being as to the colour
of the stick, one saying it was green, and the
other blue. They are now dead, but their ages,
if still living, would have been about eighty-five
and ninety-seven—the elder of the two not having
come to reside in the neighbourhood until he
was twenty-one. J think then from these data
we may safely draw the conclusion that the tree
in question cannot be much above eighty years
old. According to its present rate of growth, it
would be about ninety, but as it probably grew
more rapidly when younger, this calculation would
seem to point as nearly as possible to the same
result. In the size of some large Scotch firs
which are standing near this Cedar, these men told
me they could detect no difference.

The comparative rate of growth of some other
trees, which I measured at the same time, may

: 92

228

COMPARATIVE GROWTH OF TREES.

[PART II.

possibly not be uninteresting to some of my

readers as gathered from the annexed table.

TREE, from GIRTH, GIRTH,
around.) Feb. 4,185. | Feb. 17, 1857.
ft, in, ft. in,
1 | Deciduous Cypress ............ 4 4 8% 4 10}
2 | Cedar of Lebanon.... 4 6 3 7 0
3 | Weeping Ash .... se}! 4 103 5 0
4 Ditto: > Avssdeucateecc 4 3 64 3 7
5 |Scotch Fir 2.0... cess 4 Io 3 Io 34
6 | Evergreen Oak.. 4 8 63 8 73
7 | Silver Fir .......... 4 9 3 9 33
8 DIOS aasateenstedseerenics \ 4 io ih Io 4%
9 | Red or Virginian Cedar ...... 13 6 3 6 §
1o | Oriental Plane ................45 4 1o 44 Io 8
Branch of ditto again taking
root—where it enters teh ° 10 ° 9
ground
ee 2 3 2 22
Il 4 6 Io 7 32
12 wl 4 5 7 5 7k |
13, Oak “cenchsncssiamseendnatietaed 4 3 8 3 118 |
14 | Copper Beech .................. be 3 9 4 7
15 | Pinaster 4 8 4 8 43
16 | Weeping Willow ... 4 7 6 4 Il
D7? Mew cpivsaapeaice sien 33 4 8% 4 9
18 | Catalpa I 1 03 I 10
19 | Single-leaved Ash 4 Ig 2 4
BO | LAME: .svcesesccsitcansnpices 1 7 8h 8 o
21 | Cupressus Torulosa 2h 2. 3 0
Jan. 27, 1858. |
22 4 5 0 5 6
23 4 5 6 6 23
24 4 5 5 84
2 4 8 1 8 6}
ae 4 | 2 6 | 35

CH. VII.] CHANGES IN POND-WEEDS. 229

The changes which occasionally take place in
Pond-weeds are very striking, and apparently
inexplicable—I have watched them with much
interest in a chain of some eight ponds, all fed
by the same stream, and occupying together a
space of about one third of a mile in length.
Until about eighteen or twenty years ago that
sea-weed-looking nuisance the Potamogeton cris-
pum was, I believe, unknown throughout the
whole of this chain. Shortly after that time the
second pond in it became almost covered with
this weed, while the upper one was suffering
from a scummy infliction (conferva) exclusively.
The “potamogeton” pest seemed then to desert
the second pond, and move upwards en masse,
the scum, which had pervaded the upper pond,
giving way to its more powerful rival, which
completely filled it, while but one or two minute
pieces of the weed were visible in the second.
The ponds between the second and the last in
the chain remained for some time uninoculated
with the new weed, but a great part of the last
has now become quite choked up by it, the inter-
mediate ones remaining still almost entirely free
from it, and the upper one being comparatively
free both from it and the scum which had for-

230 MAGGOTS FROM SEA-WEED. [PART II.

merly choked it up. The second pond has since
been filled up.

The soil which is observable at the mouths
of Earth-worm holes (worm-casts as they are
called) by no means consists exclusively of earth
thrown up by them from beneath the surface, it
being their habit, when returning from their noc-
turnal peregrinations, to bring with them any
light and portable substances which they may
come across, and, leaving them at the entrances
of their holes, thus shut their doors after them.
On a lawn near Winchester, a short time since,
I noticed a number of small black pellets col-
lected into heaps in such a way as to make it
appear at first that sheep had made their way
into the garden, and been straying there. On
closer examination however they proved to be
composed of acorns from a neighbouring lex,
which had been carried off, and thus disposed by
the Worms.

It is not, I think, generally known that Mag-
gots, admirably adapted for feeding young phea-
sants and partridges, can be procured from
common sea-weed. This should be taken up as
near low-water mark as possible, placed in a heap,
and allowed to rot, about a fortnight after which

CH. VII] DISEASE IN PARTRIDGES. 231

it will be found swarming with maggots, rather
smaller than those bred in flesh. The keeper,
from whom I learnt this dodge, a man of consi-
derable experience in his vocation, tells me that he
considers them, as food for young birds, superior
to flesh maggots, inasmuch as they may be given
in any quantity without fear of causing surfeit.

Out of forty-two young Partridges attempted
to be reared by a friend of mine in 1853 only one
survived, the whole of the others having been
carried ‘off by a disease somewhat peculiar, and,
I believe, uncommon, manifesting itself by a
gathering close to the eye, about the size of a pea,
containing matter, which caused the head to swell
up to double the natural size. The following year
many were carried off by a similar disease, the
only difference being that the gathering then took
place inside the upper mandible. Many remedies
were tried, but none proved successful. Running
in the same meadow with these partridges, and
treated exactly in the same way, were a number
of young pheasants. Singularly enough, however,
the disease was exclusively confined to the par-
tridges. Not one of the pheasants was attacked
by it, and they remained throughout perfectly
healthy.

232 BOY AND WASPS—MIDGES. [PART II.

White, in his Natural History of Selborne,
mentions an idiot boy, who had a remarkable
penchant for taking the nests of Bees and Wasps,
of the stings of which he was perfectly regardless.
I knew a similar instance of a mason’s son in the
Island, who, with all his wits about him, when
about nine years old, had the same fearlessness of
wasps. He would take one of their nests, and
bring it home in his cap, either not being stung, or
feeling no pain from the stings.

We are, happily, comparatively free from
Midges in the south of England, but in some parts
of Scotland they are sometimes perfectly intole-
rable. The best simple preventive against their
attacks is, I believe, oil—not a pleasant cure, par-
ticularly as you feel them trying to crawl after
they are stuck in it, but not so bad as the disease.
If you anoint your face with this before going into
a locality infested by midges, you will soon find
it thickly peppered with them, it being in fact for
the time converted into a “Catch ’em alive, O!”
Deer’s fat is said to be preferable to oil, as it does
not dry up so quickly, but, if you carry a small
bottle of oil in your pocket, you can renew the
application at pleasure. Whisky is of no use. I
have washed my face with it, but the midges are

CH. VII.] BIRDS ON SCOTCH SEA-LOCHS. 233

true to the tastes of their adopted country, and
seem rather to like it than otherwise. Tobacco-
smoke they do not like, and if you could manage
to keep a pipe constantly a-light, and your face
turned due to windward, you would hardly require
anything else.

I remember a friend of mine one hot afternoon
in August passing by a tent which we had set up
in the hills on a moor in Ross-shire, and finding —
a small boy, who had been left there to get dinner
ready, sitting in the burn which ran by it, with
only his head and hands above water, engaged in
plucking a duck (ducking and plucking alter-
nately), having been fairly hunted into it by the
midges.

From the way in which some of the lochs on
the western coast of Scotland teem with animal
life in the way of sea and shell-fish, one would
naturally expect their shores to be tenanted in an
equal degree by the birds which ordinarily live
upon them. In this respect, however, I have been
somewhat disappointed, those which one finds
along the sides of such lochs being for the most
part confined to Curlews, Herons, Oyster-catchers
(which are, by the way, very good eating), and
Ring Dotterel, none of them often appearing in any

234 GREAT FLOCK OF HERONS. [PART It.

great numbers. I should perhaps except Curlews,
of which one sees a good many occasionally ; and
Herons, which are very abundant. On one occa-
sion, near the mouth of Loch Duich, about the
beginning of September, I saw a very unusual
number of these birds on wing together. There
must have been several hundred of them, flapping
to and fro with a lazy desultory flight, and looking,
at a distance, against the dark wooded bank of the
loch, like so many great white moths. Ordinarily,
a dozen would probably have been the maximum
number one would have met with in passing from
one extremity of the loch to the other. There
appeared, so far as I could make out, to be no
particular inducement which could tend to the
gathering together of this extraordinary assem-
blage. Migration naturally suggests itself as a
possible cause, but I am not aware that Herons are
in the habit of changing their quarters in such
large bodies, nor is September the time of year
when one would have expected such a movement
to take place; unless, indeed, the old birds may
have been leading their young ones away from
their breeding-stations to their autumn feeding-
grounds. They could certainly at that time
scarcely elsewhere find a more ample supply of

CH. VII.] MORTALITY AMONGST SEA-BIRDS. 238

food, as cuddies (to say nothing of other fish) then
abound in all the lochs and bays of that coast to
an extent almost inconceivable.

A very remarkable and extensive mortality
was observed to prevail this autumn, 1859, (about
the months of August and September) amongst
several species of sea-birds along the west coasts
of Scotland, Ireland, and England, the species
more particularly affected by it appearing to be
Guillemots, Razor-bills, Puffins, and Gulls, numbers
of which were picked up along the shore, the
greater part dead, but some still alive, though so
reduced and helpless that they could be taken up
by the hand. A friend of mine in the Isle of
Arran picked up in the course of one morning's
walk upwards of fifty dead and dying, mostly
Guillemots and Razor-bills, but including a few of
the two other kinds mentioned.

This mortality was noticed at several different
places along the coast, and appeared to have a
very wide range, extending as far round on the
south coast as Bournemouth. I have been unable
to trace it further to the westward, but am
informed that there was a marked falling off this
summer from the usual number of these birds
which annually resort to the Freshwater Cliffs to

236 MORTALITY AMONGST SEA-BIRDS. [PART II.

breed. This circumstance would lead to the sup-
position that there must have been some similar
visitation among them last year.

The birds which were thus picked up were, I
am told, thin, but scarcely so emaciated as to lead
to the belief that they had become thus reduced
merely from starvation.

In the absence of any light which may have
been thrown on the subject by dissection or other-
wise, of the existence of which I am not aware,
the actual cause of this mortality must remain a
matter of doubt, but it may probably, without hesi-
tation, be assigned to one of the three following—
namely, starvation, poison, or disease. With re-
gard to the first, it is just possible that from some
atmospheric or other cause the fish, which form
almost exclusively the food of these birds, may
have kept so far out at sea, and so deep, as to
be inaccessible to them; or again, they may have
been by some means diverted from their usual
course—intercepted for instance by the extraor-
dinary plague of Dog-fish, by which the North-
western coast of Scotland was (as mentioned in
page 84) visited in the spring of 1858—and thus
prevented from reaching their ordinary haunts,
where the birds would naturally have depended on

CH. VII. ] HOW TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR. 237

finding them. The Gulls are said to have apparently
suffered less than the other three species, a circum-
stance which (as Gulls do not feed so exclusively
on fish) would, so far as it goes, tend to support
this view of the case. The second cause, that of
poison, though indeed possible, yet seems so ex-
tremely improbable, that I think it may be dis-
missed as scarcely worth consideration. The last,
that of disease, appears to me at once the simplest
and most probable. I can see no good reason why
sea-birds should enjoy an immunity from epide-
mics any more than land-birds—Grouse, for in-
stance, which have suffered so severely within the
last few years—and to some such visitation I
should be inclined to attribute the mortality which
has thus raged amongst them. If but one species
had been attacked, I should have had scarcely
any doubt on the subject, but there is on the
whole, I think, less difficulty in arriving at this
conclusion than any other.

Had only a few birds been picked up on one
part of the coast, their deaths might have been
very fairly attributed to weather, but it seems
scarcely possible that any storm could have at
once so wide a range, and so extensively de-
structive an effect.

238 SKELETONS OF WEASELS—RATS. [PART II.

The skeletons of two Weasels, picked perfectly
clean, were found in a wheat-rick on a farm in our
neighbourhood, whose death the men employed in
taking it in attributed to rats, of which there were
also many in the rick. I doubt, however, whether
rats ever commit such an act of retributive justice,
and should rather imagine that they met their
deaths from indulging in a course of poisoned
mouse, of which a plentiful supply was at hand.
Their bones may have been afterwards picked by
the rats, who, being no way particular, may have
dined upon them by way of a change of diet.

Another adjoining homestead was about the
same time infested by Rats, which seemed to have
arrived suddenly, the place having been, until a
short time before, almost free from them. Up-
wards of twenty dozen were caught there in the
course of a few weeks. Whilst this work of ex-
termination was going on, as the rat-catcher was
one day ferreting them in the barn, the bailiff,
who was standing outside, called his attention to
a part of the thatch where he heard some of them
squeaking. He passed his hand along it, under
the impression that there was a nest there, and
came presently to a part which was quite warm.
Having discovered, or made, a hole communicating

CH. VII.] A GOOD HAUL OF RATS. 239

with the interior, he inserted his hand, when he
found that it terminated in a cul de sac full of large
rats. He set to work at emptying it, and pulled
out and killed, two and sometimes three at a time,
no less than twenty-six large rats, several others
succeeding in making their escape—not a bad haul,
considering that he received two-pence for every
rat killed. Whilst doing this he was not once
bitten, which he attributed to the fact that he
had, by closing the mouth of the hole with his
arm, kept the rats in darkness, when he said, you
may handle them with perfect impunity. After
he was gone, the bailiff thought he would try his
own luck at the hole, and, he, in his turn, suc-
ceeded in pulling out and adding nine others to
the bag. In doing this, however, probably not
being so well up to the work as the rat-catcher,
he received a pretty sharp bite across one of the
fingers. The rats had, of course, been driven into
the hole by the ferrets.

I remember, when a boy, seeing an upright
skirting-board in some stables stripped off, in order
to discover the cause of a villanous stench which
issued from it, when it was found to proceed from
the bodies of nine large Rats, in a state of putre-
faction, closely jammed together with their heads

240 RATS IN A FIX. [PART II,

downwards. They had evidently taken refuge
there when the premises were ferreted some-
time previously, and been unable to back out
again.

CHAPTER VIII.

Determination of Sparrow-hawh—Boldness and voracity of
Stoat—Jays—bait for—Flocks of Magpies—Jays, Mag-
pies, &e. subject to fits—Raven—Cats—Barn-owls—Kes-
trels—Foxes.

HILE partridge-shooting a year or two ago

I put up a covey of birds, and, following
them with the keeper, came across one which had
just been knocked down by a Hawk. He at once
set about taking preliminary measures for the
apprehension of the offender, by pegging down
the bird, placing a small bush at its head, and
otherwise limiting the hawk’s approach to it by
a little avenue of sticks, between which the gin
was to be set after our day's shooting was over.
Having expressed a wish to see the hawk if he
caught it, the next morning, as I was sitting down
to breakfast, I was told that he wanted to speak
to me, and, on going out, found him with his
prisoner, a hen Sparrow-Hawk, alive in the gin,
which had her fast by one leg. From the claw

R

242. DETERMINATION OF HAWK—STOAT. [PART II.

of the other was still suspended, firmly clutched
by the neck in her strong gripe, the partridge, of
which she had never for a moment relinquished
her hold from the time she was taken up, although
it had been thus suspended during the whole of
his walk to the house, a distance of fully half a
mile; so loth was she to part with her ill-gotten
booty.

The following singular instance of the boldness
and extreme voracity of the Stoat came under
my notice about the same time. I was riding
up a lane accompanied by a retriever, when he
went to investigate the mouth of a drain closed
in by loose stones, but immediately jumped back,
evidently startled by something—a snake, as I
thought. I rode up to see what it was, and he
went to have another look at the place, but again
retreated, repelled, as I then heard, by a deter-
mined spitting hiss. Upon this I got off my horse,
tied him up to a gate, and went to satisfy myself as
to the nature of the beast from which this noise
had proceeded, when I was in my turn similarly
saluted, whilst I could distinguish some animal
rushing to the mouth of the drain. I then saw
something protruding from it, which turned out
to be the hind-quarters of a young rabbit stuck

CH. VIII.] BOLDNESS AND VORACITY OF STOAT. 243

in the stones at the entrance. On attempting to
pull this out I found myself resisted by some force
pulling hard at it from within, but succeeding, not
without some difficulty, in doing so, it was followed
by the head and shoulders of a stoat, making most
angry and energetic demonstrations of hostility,
and accompanying them with the same savage hiss
that I had before heard. I tried to get hold of
him, but he avoided coming to close quarters,
luckily for my fingers, so I had my cowardly satis-
faction by calling in the aid of a keeper, who lived
not far off. He laid siege to the place with gins,
and a campaign of a couple of days or so resulted
in the capture of an old mother stoat and six
young ones nearly as large as herself. I was
rather conscience-stricken, when he told me that
he had first caught the old one, and then a young
one, using her body as a bait; thinking it was a
strong case of seething the kid in its mother’s milk.
I might, however, have spared myself any such
scruples, for the affectionate infant had, as I found,
come to his mother, not to suck but to eat; and,
in fact, not only did he and his brothers .and
sisters finish her, but the whole of this united
family, save one who made his escape, eat one
another up, the survivor going off with the whole
R2

244 JAYS—BAIT FOR. [PART II,

of the family blood, if not honours, concentrated
in his person. The keeper wound up his account
of his share of the transaction by saying he be-
lieved that a stoat would at one meal eat up an-
other as big as itself.

Jays are of some slight service to game-pre-
servers in giving pheasants notice of the approach
of danger. If you are perfectly concealed from
pheasants as they come to their feed, but exposed
to view from above, and a jay happens to catch
sight of you, at his first warning “squark” every
pheasant will take the hint and be off instanter.
But, although there is this redeeming point in
their favour, yet the havoc which they commit
amongst the eggs of game, to say nothing of young
birds, which I have no doubt they are not averse
to picking up occasionally—I have seen one carry
off a good sized young thrush—renders it the
interest of every game-preserver, and the duty
of every keeper, to get rid of them as fast as
possible. To effect this no plan will, I believe,
be found to answer more effectually than sham
eggs as baits with a gin. They should be turned
out of wood—birch answers very well—and colour-
ed and varnished to represent the natural ones.
Thrush’s are perhaps as good as any for the

CH. VIII.] ARE MAGPIES NOMADS? 245

purpose, as they shew well, and are easy of imita-
tion. Of course the closer the resemblance is, the
better, but even if it be but rudely approximated
to, the success of the bait is extraordinary. Four
or five of these eggs should be placed in a sham
or real nest on a stage made against a tree a
few feet from the ground, leaving just room for
the gin, which should have a little branch or two
on either side of it, so as to bar access to the
nest save vid the gin. The peculiar advantages
of this plan are that it can be pursued with
destructive effect (somewhat strange to say) all
through the winter, when natural eggs are not
easily attainable, and that the sham eggs can
be carried loose in the pocket without fear of
breaking them.

I have occasionally seen Magpies on high,
exposed, down-land collected together in such (for
them) extraordinary numbers—from twenty-five to
thirty in a flock—that I cannot but think they
must be to a certain extent nomads, and shift
their quarters in company, like swallows; parti-
cularly as I am persuaded that the immediate
neighbourhood could not, unaided, have furnished
so many, and these flocks have, so far as I know,
only been seen early in the Spring, long after

246 JAYS, MAGPIES, &C. SUBJECT TO FITS. [PART II.

the young birds would have ceased to depend on
the old ones.

Tame Jays and Magpies, even when allowed
all the liberty consistent with a clipped wing,
appear to be very subject to cramp and fits,
which are often fatal to them. Of several indivi-
duals which I remember being reared at home,
not one, I think, survived these attacks, though
one or two attained their full growth.

A tame Raven, which we had, was also simi-
larly affected, but he made his escape at a com-
paratively early period of his life. He used besides
to execute most extraordinary antics, making now
and then, all of a sudden, a desperate rush half
flying and half running, throwing a summerset as
he did it, and accompanying the performance
with a loud and peculiar croak.

We at the time were inclined to attribute
these freaks to fits or insanity, but it was sug-
gested, and perhaps with truth, that his object
might have been simply to scratch his head.
Gilbert White in his Natural History of Sel-
borne mentions that he had noticed them turn
over during their flight, possibly, as he conjec-
tures, for that purpose, and perhaps our raven
could not, under the circumstances, have managed

CH. VIII.] RAVEN—CAT—BARN OWL—KESTREL. 247

it better. Ravens are not at all numerous in the
Isle of Wight, although they enjoy there very
generally the advantages accruing from the super-
stitious respect with which they are so commonly
regarded, as but few of the lower orders would
be found bold enough to kill one. The tame one
that I have mentioned, when he made his escape,
commenced his peregrinations by getting on
the porch of a cottage, and nearly frightened
the inmates out of their wits by croaking in at
the windows.

Probably there is no kind of vermin more de-
structive to game than the Cat, but fortunately
also there is perhaps none which is more easily
trapped. An instance has been mentioned to me
where a large, long-neglected covert having been
taken in hand for game, the keeper, a knowing
hand, commenced operations by leading a drag of
rabbit's entrails from several points in the sides
of the covert to a central tree in it. From a
branch of this he suspended the drag, setting a
number of gins all round it, and was next morn-
ing rewarded by finding them tenanted by a re-
gular flock of cats.

Opinions little favourable to the common Barn
Owl and Kestrel are not unfrequently expressed

248 BARN OWL—KESTREL. [PART II.

and acted upon with reference to their supposed
destructiveness to game; and considering that
every other kind of Hawk (properly so called)
and Owl, which are at all common here, are un-
doubtedly very destructive to it, it is not at all
surprising that these two should have been often
classed in one common category and indiscrimi-
nately proscribed as vermin.

Now as to the Barn Owl, I believe there never
was a bad name more undeservedly given. It is
just possible that under the influence of hunger
he may be driven to pick up a very small leveret
or young bird (though I have never heard of
such a case), but his ordinary food undoubtedly
consists almost exclusively of mice and rats, and
his presence is therefore a positive benefit to the
farmer and gardener, and an advantage rather
than otherwise to the game-preserver, rats being
decidedly enemies to game. A friend of mine
tells me that he saw the other day a rat engaged
in hunting a young rabbit as regularly as a stoat
might have done it.

Of the Kestrel I am sorry to be unable to speak
quite so respectfully. There is no doubt that, as
Yarrell says, “Mice constitute by far the most
considerable part of their food,” their diet being

CH. VIII.] KESTREL AT TIMES DESTRUCTIVE. 249

occasionally varied by small birds, coleopterous
insects, their larvee, and earth-worms. Yet occa-
sionally, and particularly where they have families
to provide for, they are not contented with such
“small deer,” but will make free with young phea-
sants or partridges, sometimes even carrying their
audacity to the extent of making a raid on the
chicken or pheasant coop. I had one day paid
a visit to a gamekeeper during the summer to
see how his young birds got on, when he reported
“all well,” except that he had been “terribly
bothered with one of they nasty ‘vanner hawks’”
(Vecticé for kestrels—qu. wind-fanner), which had
carried off several of them. On my expressing
some doubt as to whether the offender was really
a vanner, he said he was quite sure of it, and
hoped shortly to give me ocular demonstration
of the fact; nor did he leave it long doubtful,
for on my next visit a day or two afterwards he
shewed her to me, an undoubted female kestrel,
which he had shot in flagrante delicto, in the very
act of carrying off one of his young pheasants.
While on the subject of vermin I will say a
few words on the subject of our dear friends and
enemies the Foxes—friends to all those who, like
myself, would sooner be with the hounds through

250 FOXES v. GAME. [PART II.

one good run than carry a gun at ten of the best
battues that the country can afford—enemies to
those, who, preferring shooting to hunting, pre-
serve game to the exclusion of foxes. And I will
do so without reserve, because I think it is due
to those gentlemen (and there are many) who,
although they preserve game and do not hunt,
yet preserve foxes simply for the amusement of
their friends, that an ample acknowledgment
should be made to them for their kindness, and
that no attempt should be made to blink or de-
preciate the sacrifice which they are thus liberal
enough to make for the benefit of others.

I believe the Fox to be about the most in-
discriminate of our carnivorous animals, nothing
from a hare to a mouse coming amiss to him;
and that the different descriptions of game suffer
more or less from his attaeks, only just in pro-
portion as they are more or less accessible to
him. For that reason I believe that hares suffer
most, and next to. them partridges. Foxes have
been said to be so fond of rabbits that they will
touch nothing else if they can get a sufficient
supply of them. Doubtless they are—very fond
of them, but the young rabbits are protected by
being snugly under ground, whilst the unfortu-

CH. VIII. ] FOXES v. GAME, 251

nate leveret is utterly defenceless, and must fall
a victim to the first fox that happens to pass to
leeward of it. Old hares too, though better able
to take care of themselves, must often fall victims
to their cunning foe, when old rabbits would be out
of his reach. The lives of young pheasants and
partridges would, gud foxes, probably be insura-
ble at about equal rates until the former are able
to go to bough; but, after that, pheasants are
comparatively exempt from danger, while a covey
of partridges clustered all together at night must
be as easy and tempting a prey as a fleet of gold-
laden galleons without a convoy would have been
to a map-of-war in the olden time. I know an
estate in a part of the country where there were
formerly no foxes, on which, before their intro-
duction, sixty or eighty hares were not unfre-
quently killed in a day’s shooting. Since then,
however (the coverts on the estate in question
affording an excellent harbour for foxes), the
number of hares on it has been gradually de-
creasing, and now it is almost rare in a day’s
shooting to kill a tenth part of the former num-
ber.

Besides the game actually taken by foxes as
food, they indulge, I regret to say, in the very

252 FOXES v. GAME. [PART II.

reprehensible practice of wantonly killing more
than they can consume, for the mere fun of the
thing, or perhaps to keep their hands in. The
following instance of this fell within my own
observation. On coming down to breakfast a few
years ago, while staying with a gentleman in the
South of England, I was horrified at seeing on the
hall-table one of the largest-sized kitchen-trays
covered with young pheasants laid out in order,
fine forward birds, the ruddiness of the plumage
of some already denoting the sex. Passing on,
I went into the dining-room, where I was accosted
by my host (who, though not loving foxes per se,
had, I must say, been always most liberal in pre-
serving them, from the time he found he could
contribute to the public amusement by doing so)
with “Well, you see what your friends, the foxes,
have been doing.” “Oh!” I said, “it can’t be a
fox, it must be a dog.” “No dog,” answered he;
“put as to that you can easily satisfy yourself.’
I did so, and found sure enough, to my disgust,
that he was right. Some young birds, brought up
by hand, had been placed, together with the hens
in coops, in a piece of long grass near the house,
a certain quantity having been left uncut for that
purpose. Amongst these a fox or foxes had been

OH. VIII.] FOXES v. GAME. 253

running amuck during the night, and his or their
bag had amounted (1 think) to forty-eight. Of
this number two only were missing, the corpses of
the remainder lying scattered here and there, as
if they had just been nipped and left where they
were caught. So little signs of violence did they
exhibit, that only two, I believe, out of the whole
number were minus their heads. The position of
one bird was very remarkable, as shewing the trouble
taken by the fox in the attainment of his nefarious
ends. One side of the piece of grass in which the
birds lay was separated by a somewhat deep and
broad ditch from a rather high bank, topped by a
blackthorn hedge which rose fully six feet above it.
It was easy in the long dewy grass to follow the
tracks of the fox or foxes, one of which led me to
the ditch. This he had crossed, and, pursuing the
investigation, I found to my surprise that he had
actually worked his way right up the centre to the
top of the hedge, caught and killed there a phea-
sant which had doubtless flown thither for refuge,
left it there as evidence against himself, and
descended again by the way that he went up.
There could be no doubt of the fact, for, the hedge
being a thick one, he had left on the thorns no
inconsiderable quantity of his coat en route.

254 FOXES v. GAME. [PART Il.

A keeper, on an estate in a part of the country
where the friends of whom I am speaking are
strictly preserved, told me in confidence another
anecdote which will tend to throw some light on
their tastes and habits. “Call you this a backing
of your friends,’ some one may ask, “to betray
this confidence, and rake up unseemly stories to
their discredit?” Now, as between the keeper and
myself, no names being given, there is, I conceive,
no breach of confidence; and as, with regard to
the foxes, I started with the avowed intention to
“nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice,”
I will take the liberty of proceeding with my
story. The keeper, in spite of endless precautions
and diligent watching, one night lost, in killed and
missing, upwards of a hundred young pheasants
and partridges, besides having several of his
nursing hens killed and others maimed by the
foxes, in their endeavours to drag them through
the bars of the coops. This was too much for his
patience, and, finding a good many of the young
birds buried in the vicinity of the place, he,
“unbeknown to” his master, who was a stanch
protector of foxes, set some gins by them. About
a week elapsed without any result, but at the end
of that period he found in one of them an old

CH. VIII. ] SUMMING UP—VERDICT. 255

vixen fox, and by her side three fine young phea-
sants, part of the buried plunder, which she must
have dropped when caught. She had evidently
been waiting until the birds were sufficiently
“Kept,” and was going her rounds to replenish her
larder with them. “I suppose you let her go,”
I said. “Oh! in course I did, Sir,” answered he,
but with the slightest suspicion of a chuckle, as
I fancied. Whether or no he did so, remains a
matter between him and his conscience; but all
I can say is, that if he did, he must have been
a keeper of a very unusually charitable and for-
bearing disposition.

With regard then to the charge of poaching
against our “friends,” I must, as an honest man,
though reluctantly, return a verdict of guilty,
coupling it, however, with a strong recommenda-
tion to mercy. It is all very well, in pleading for
them with farmers’ wives, gamekeepers, and others,
who cannot be expected to look upon them with
very favouring eyes, to

Be to their faults a little blind,
Be to their virtues ever kind ;

but it is, I repeat, in my opinion, but fair to those
who injure their own sport for the sake of others,
that the extent to which they do so by preserving

256 ‘op ROT ’EM—BLESS "EM.” [PARTII,

foxes, should be felt and acknowledged by those
who reap the benefit. Those who hunt as well as
shoot, may well sometimes say of them, as an old
garden-man used of my brothers and myself when
we were boys: “Well, they did plague me some-
times, but I did love ’em, ‘od rot ’em—bless ’em.”

Nore.

Tue following letter, for which I am indebted to the
kindness of a friend, has reached me too late for incorporation
with my Notes; but the incident to which it refers is so
remarkable in itself and so strikingly illustrative of the
voracity of the Pike, before alluded to (page 43), that,
rather than omit it, 1 must ask the Printer to give it here
a separate place.

BaRronMERE, SUFFOLK.
My pear H.

You ask me about the Pike who choked himself to
death and was survived by his dinner.

One day, some years ago, I was fishing from my punt
on the Mere, and saw something moving oddly about just
beneath the surface of the water a few yards off. I paddled
up, and found a Carp of about two pounds weight swimming
blindly round and round with a Pike on his nose. The Pike
was dead and limp—several leeches had already fastened
upon him—but the Carp could not shake or rub him off,
the Pike’s teeth turning inwards and entering deeper the
more the Carp withdrew. I took them both into the boat,
and released the Carp. After measuring him and finding
him considerably bigger than the Pike, I put him into the
water again and he swam off with a light heart, but a very
sore nose.

Yours truly,
(Signed) Harry Jonas.

INDEX.

A.

Animals, Fancies taken by, 185
>> Tameness of, on Sundays, 212
Anser albifrons, 204
Ardsheal, Fishing off, 96
Arran, Mortality of Sea-birds off Isle
of, 235
Asses, Wool on heads of young, 217
Avon, Effect of Kill-devil on the
(Devonshire), 26
» Fly-fishing on, 56
> Jack will take artificial bait
freely in (Hampshire), 20

B.

Babies, Down on forehead of, 217
Badger, Ineffectual attempt to poi-
son, 177
Bait for Jays, 244
Baiting, for spinning, 12
Baits for sea-fishing, England, 73
39 5 Scotland, 74
Bala, Kill-devil from, 23
‘ Barley-bird,”’ 205
Barn-Owl, harmless as regards game,
248
Belt, 102
Birds, fascinated by human eye, 182
>, Return of migratory, to same
haunts, 194
>, Plea for rare, 207—211
> Rarer, Visitors to Isle of
Wight, 203
Bittern, 203

Blackberries in winter, 151
Black Viper, 172
Boat-dress for wet weather, 100
Bones, Fondness of cattle for, 178
Bournemouth, Sea-birds found dead
off, 235
Brambles, Fishing off the, 98
Brambling, 204
Breeding-season, Influence
birds, 154
Brussels, Fish-ponds near, 38
“ Bull-bird,”’ 206
Bunting, Cirl, 204
is Snow, 204
Buntings, Visitation of, 197
Button, Covering for Rod, 5, 6
Buzzard, Death of, 192
Buzzards, Anecdote as to breeding
of, 193

of on

Cc.

Caledonian Canal, 117
Cap, Scatwell, 102
Cape, 99
Carp, Basking, 36
», Eels and schylus, 37
x, How to catch, 33
>> Increase of weight in, 40
» Large, 38
» Noises made at night by, 48
»> spawn devoured by birds and
fish, 51
y Spawning of, 50
» taken with live minnow, 53
3» Tame, 36

8

258

Cat bitten by Lizard, 171
» very destructive to game, 247

Caterpillar, Fly tailed with, 65

oe Paralyzed, 146
Cattle, Fondness of, for bones, 178
Cedar of Lebanon, growth of, 226
Charming away warts, &c. 183
Charadrius edicnemus, 206, 209

55 hiaticula, 206, 2338

a5 morinellus, 206

Fe pluvialis, 206
Clearing line, Simple, 62
Cockles, 74, 109
Cod, 82, 98

» caught by Dog, 131
Codlings, 77, 82
Colour of Fly, 56
>, Flat-fish changing? 107
Conferva, 229
Conger-eels, 83, 183
Creran, Loch, 27, 80
Cuddies, Fishing for, 75
», astonishingly numerous, 81

Cur baptism, 190

Curlew, 233
Curlew, Stone-, 206
* Murder of, 209

D.

Dace caught with spinning bait, 52
Darwin’s Naturalist’s Voyage, 147
Deer, Horns shed by, how disposed
of ? 179, 180
“ Dodger,” 73
Dog made sick by smell of Goat, 181
Dogs, Anecdotes of, 128, 181, 186,
190, 191, 218, 214
Dog-fish, Plague of, 84, 235
>» Small spotted, 83
Dog-fisher, 128
Donacia, 149
Dotterel, 206

INDEX.

Dotterel, Ring, 206, 233
Double live-bait tackle, 29
Dragonet, Gemmous, 83
Dress for boat-work, 99
Drum-net, 86

Duich, Loch, 187, 234

E.

Earth worm, Casts of, 230
Eau de Lyon, 66
Eel, 87
», caught with fly, 54
»» ~spearing, 109
»» held in abhorrence by Scotch, 183
», Conger, 83, 133
Egg-shells, Disposition of, 167
Elephants, Fleece on young, 217
Ember-cooking fish, 116
Erme, The, 107
Estremadura, Large Lizard in, 171

ss Birds in, 172
Executioner for Jack, 31
9 Sea fish, 79

Eye, Birds fascinated by human, 182

F.

Fancies taken by animals, 185
Fascination of birds by human eye, 182
Fastening for Casting-line, 58

o for Bob-flies, ib.

a for Reel, 62
Findhorn, An afternoon on the, 188
Fish, Deceptive appearance of, in

water, J11
» Improving breeds of, 45, 46

Fisher-dog, 128
Fishing from steamers, 94
Fish-taxidermy, 104
Flat-fish, Spearing, 107, 109
Fly-fishing, 55 et seq.

INDEX.

Fly-fishing in sea-lochs, 75

Fox, White, 177

“ Fox-hunter,”’ The, 134

Fox-hunting in the Highlands, 135

Foxes v. Game; anecdotes, &c. 249—
256

Frencham pond, Little, 54

Freshwater, Breeding of Peregrine
Falcons at, 195

Decrease in number of

sea-birds breeding at,235

Fringilla Montifringilla, 204

»

G.

Gaff, essential in sea-fishing, 78
», Make- shift, 60
Gaff-handle, Colour of, 16
Gag for Jack, 31
Gairloch, 95
Game, Foxes v.; anecdotes, &c., 249—
256
Gannet, 203
* Ganser,” 74
Garry, Loch, 117
Gemmous Dragonet, 83
Geneva, 64, 65
Gentle, Tailing fly with, 64
Gimp, 14
Glen Coich, 118, 127
» Garry, 116
Glomach, Trout in the, 137
Gloves, How to pair, 103
Goat, Stinking, 180
Goose, White-fronted, 204
Gosse, Letters from Alabama, 148
Grass scarified by Rooks, 215, 216
Grass-hoppers, as bait for Carp, 37
Grase-hopper Warbler, 205
“« Great Spotted Ling,” 139
Grouse, Egg-shells of, how disposed,
167

259

Guernsey, Fishing off, 96
Guillemots suffering from disease, 235
Gulls suffering from disease, ib.

»> Habits of tame, 156

»» Tameness of, in general, 158
Weather foretold by flight of, 160

a

Haddock, 83

Hair, 63

Hake, 82

Hand-coiling line, 15

Hare, Star on forehead of, 223

Harlequin duck, Murder of, 209

Hatching by Pheasants and Hens
compared, 169

Hawk, Determination of Sparrow-,
241

Hermit Crab, 73

Herons, Great flock of, 234

Herring, as bait, 74
»» taken with bait, 97
» fry, 98

Himalayan Pheasant, 168

Hobby, 204

Hooks, Flights of, 12

Hoopoe, 204

Horns shed by Deer, how disposed of,
179

Horses, Anecdote of Carriage-, 213

House Sparrows flock together before
hard weather, 223

Hugh Miller, 107

Hutton, Lieut., 148

Hydrocampa stagnalis, 149.

I.
Tford, Jack-fishing at, 111
Isle of Wight :—See “ Bunting”
“Jack Daws”
“ Peregrine Falcon”
“ Rarer Birds”
“Raven”

260

Isle of Wight :—See “Sea-birds”’
Squirrels”
“ Starlings”
“Stock Dove”
“Trees”
“* Wood-pigeon”
Isle of Arran, Mortality among Sea-
birds off, 235

J.

Jack, Artificial baits for, 20
» Increase of weight in, 42
» Large,113 —
» Spinuning-tackle for, 5
» taken with dead bait not in
motion, 21
» taken with fly, 54
» to be struck sharply, 19
Voracity of, 48, 256
Tankian building in winter, 150
& Jays and Nutcrackers,” 162
» Bait for, 244
» Tame, subject to cramp and
fits, 246
Jura, The, 65

K.

“‘ Kennan-craw,” 189

Kestrel at times destructive to game,
249

Kill-devils, 22
” on the Wandle, 22

35 in Devonshire, 26
# in salt-water, 27
King-fish, 82

Kingie, Loch, 118, 121, 127
Kitten, Attachment of, 188
Knickerbockers, 101

L.

Lady-birds at sea, 99
Landing-handle, Colour of, 16

INDEX.

Landrail, 218
» Large bags of, 219
Lily, Water, Larve under leaves of,
148
Line, Spinning, for Trout, 7
Ling, 83
» Great Spotted, 139
Linnhe, Loch, 96
Little Loch Broom, 95
“ Live Ground-baiting,’’ 32
Lizards, Two kinds of land, 170
» Large, in Estremadura, 171
Lobsters, 85
» Trap for, 83
Loch Creran, 27, 80
» Duich, 187, 234
Garry, 117, 127
» Linnhe, 96
» Kingie, 118, 121, 127
Polery, 118, 120, 127
Tiveiis Birds on Seotah, Sea-, 233
oo Fish in ditto, 81
London, The, 66
Loxia Coccothraustes, 205
Lug-worm, The, 73
Lyon, Eau de, 66
Lythe, 77

M.

Macaw, Fancy taken by, 187

Mackerel, 73, 77

Maggots from Sea-weed, 230

Magpies, Flocks of, 245
» Tame, subject to fits, 246

Maidenhead, 18, 21

Maltby, Mr, Management of fish
by, 38

Martin, Sand, 164

Mason Wasp, 145

Merlin, 204

Mice, Nuts brought out of woods by,
222

INDEX.

Midges in Scotland, 232
Miller, Hugh, 107
Moles, Strength of, 176
>> Popular notion respecting, ib.
Moorhens, destructive to fish-spawn,
51
Lofty flight of, at night,
218
Mortality among sea-birds, 235
Mushroonis not eaten by Highlanders,
136
Mussels, 74
» in Loch Creran, 80
My Schools and Schoolmasters, 107

2

N.

New Forest, 21

33 Wood Pigeons attracted

to, for beech-mast, 200
Nightingale, Murder of, in Devon-
shire, 209

“Norway Widgeons,” 197
Nurse, 83
Nuts and Nutshells on Down, 222
Nymphosolis, 149

oO.

Odynerus parietinus, 145

Overalls, 99

Oyster-Catcher, 233

Oysters, 81

Owl, Barn, harmless as regards Game,
248

Ox-bird, 206

P.

Parrots, Anecdotes of, 162 et seq.

Partridge, Anecdote, of 156

Disease among young, 231

Disposition of egg-shells of,
167

ed

”

261

Peewit, 215
Pelopaus flavipes, 148
Peregrine Falcons, Breeding of, 195
Perch in ponds near Brussels, 43
» taken with fly, 54
Phalarope, Rednecked, 203
Pheasant, Disposition of egg-shells,
167

sy Hatching by, 169

a Himalayan, 168

es Small eggs of, 169

3 White, 168
Phenicura tithys, 204
Pigeon, Wood, 154
Pike survived by his dinner, 256
Plectrophanes nivalis, 204
Plover, Grey, 206

x» Golden, ib.

Polery, Loch, 118, 120, 127
Pompilus, 146
Potamogeton crispum, 229
“« Puddock-stools,’’ 137
Puffins, suffering from disease, 235

Q.
Quail, 219

R.

Rail, Land, 218
» Large bags of, 219
Rats, Good haul of, 239
» ina fix, 239
Ravens, subject to fits, 246
» Superstitious respect for, 247
Red-necked Phalarope, 203
Redstart, Black, 204
es Common, ib.
Ring Dotterel, 206, 233
Rings for Rod, 6, 7
Roach, Increase of weight in, 467
a Tameness of, 51
Robins, Tameness of, 152
fascinated by human eye, 182

”»

262

Rockling, Three-bearded, 83, 86
Rod, Spinning, 4

» Tings, 6, 7

»» spear (cut-and-thrust), 61
Rooks, Bareness at base of bill, 217

” Grass scarified by, 215, 216
Ryde, Spearing Flat-fish off, 109

Saithe, 82
Salicaria locustella, 205
Salmo feroz, 118
Salmon, Disease in, 88, 89
ss following the line when hook-
ed, 90
6 and Sea-trout, Numbers of,
87
- taken in Sea-loch, 88
Sand Martin, 164
Sap, Great discharge of, 225
Scatwell Cap, 102
Scotch Lochs, see “ Lochs”
Sea Bream, 83

»» Birds, Mortality among, 235

» Devil, 88

» fishing, 69
Stern of boat best in, 67

re 5 Tackle for, 72

» lochs, Animal life in, 80

» Birds on, 233

3 Gull, see “ Gull”

» Weed, Maggots from, 230
Shells, Disposition of egg-, 167
Shell-fish, in Scotch Lochs, 80
Shrimps, as bait, 73

te eat their own exuvie, 180
Sillock, 82
“ Silver Haddie,”’ 83
Skate, 83, 98
» Sour, 140
Skin, Swelling of, from fish-diet, 139

” »

INDEX.

Small spotted Dog-fish, 83
Suake and Eel, 174
5, Fetidness of Common, ib.
“ Snakes and Puddock-stools,”’ 137
Snipe, 221
Snooding, 86
Snow Bunting, 204
Spain, Large Lizard in, 171
Spaniel, Anecdotes of, 181, 186, 190,
191, 213
Sparrow-Hawk, Determination of, 241
Sparrows, House, flock together before
hard weather, 223
Spate, Artificial, 89
Spear, Cut-and-thrust rod, 61
Spearing Flat-fish, 106
Sphex, 146
Spinning, Directions for, 3
» Rod for, 4
oi Tackle for, 9
Spoonbill, 203
Sprats, 139
Squaterola cinerea, 206
Squirrel, Fancy taken by, 187
Squirrels, 221
Stag’s shed-horns, how disposed of ?
179
Starlings, Breeding of, in Isle of
Wight, 195
3s Vast flock of, 196
Steamers, Fishing from, 94
Stenlock (or Stedlock), 82
Stickleback, Nest of, 110
Stoat, Boldness and Voracity of, 242
Stock Doves, Flocks of, 201
Stoddart’s Angler’s Companion, 117
Stone-Curlew, 206
8 Murder of, 209
Storm, Singular effect of, 224
Stour, The, 20, 111
Striking Jack, 19
Sundays, Tameness of Animals on, 212
Swallows killed by parasites, 165

INDEX.

Swan feeding young, 166
Swivels, 12

T.

Tailing fly with gentle, 64
Taxidermy, Fish, 103
Teddington Weir, Trout caught at,
105
Teign, The, 107
“ Tell-tale,” 73
Tench, 45
Tennent’s, Sir J. E., Ceylon, 148, 217
Three-bearded Rockling, 83, 86
Toads eat their own exuvie, 180
Tomdoun, 118
Trace for Spinning, 9
Trailing in Lakes, &c. 67
Trees, Comparative growth of, 228
Tringa variabilis, 206
Trout, Spinning-rod for, 4, 5
» Large, at Carshalton, 24
» in Devonshire, 26, 56
» Large Thames, 105
» Deformed, 137
» in the Glomach, 7b.
» in the Findhorn, 138
» of same size haunt
harbour, 195
Turkey-cock as Nurse, 166
Turnip-crop, Increase of Wood-
Pigeons induced by increase of,
198

same

Vv.

““Vanner,”’ see “ Kestrel”
Versoix, 65

» Lines on, 66
Viper, Black, 172

263

Ww.
Wandle, The, 24
‘¢ Wants,”’ 176
Warts, Charming of, 183
Wasps, Boy fearless of, 232
3» Mason, 145
Water, Deceptive appearance of fish
in, 111
» lily leaves, Larvee under, 148
Weasels, Skeletons of, in ricks, 238
Weather, Birds deceived by, 150
» Hard, foretold by flocking
together of House-
Sparrows, 223
Weeds, Pond, Change in, 229
>» Sea, Maggots from, 230
“ Wetting” fish, 93
Weybridge, Sand Martins at, 164
Wharfe, The, 62
Whistle-fish, 83, 86
White Pheasant, 167
White-throat, Tame, 15.
Whiting as bait, 74
» fishing, 98
», Pollack (Cole), 73
Wide-awake, Oilskin, 99
Wimborne, Lizards near, 171
Winkles, 81
Woodcocks, breeding, 220

a5 Carrying young from place
to place, ib.
33 Return of, to same haunts,
194
Wood-pigeon, 154
55 Increase in numbers of,
197

Worm-casts, 230
Wryneck, 205

Y.
Yunz torquilla, 205

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Hlementary Course of Mechanics and Hydrostatics. By J. C.

Snowsaut, M.A. Fourth Edition. 110 pp. (1851). Crown 8vo. 5s.

PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AND CO. 21

MECHANICS AND HYDROSTATICS—continued.

Elementary Hydrostatics. With numerous Examples and
_ Solutions. By J. B. Pozar, M.A. Second Edition. 156 pp. (1857). Crown 8vo.
5s. 6d.

Analytical Statics. With numerous Examples. By I. TopHuntrr,
M.A. Second Edition. 330 pp. (1858). Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Dynamics of a Particle. With numerous Examples. By P. G.
Tart, M.A. and W. J. Srrerze, M.A. 304 pp. (1856). Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

A Treatise on Dynamics. By W. P. Witson, M.A. 176 pp.

(1850). 8vo. 9s. 6d.

Dynamics of a System of Rigid Bodies. With numerous Exam-
ples. By E,J. Rourn, M.A. 336 pp. (1860). Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. ,

IV. ASTRONOMY AND OPTICS.

Plane Astronomy. Including Explanations of Celestial Pheno-
mena and Instruments. By A. R. Grant, M.A. 128 pp. (1850). 8vo. 6s.

Elementary Treatise on the Lunar Theory. By H. Goprray,
M.A. Second Edition. 119 pp. (1859). Crown 8vo. 5s. 6d.

A Treatise on Optics. By 8. Parkinson, B.D. 304 pp. (1859).

Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.
V. GEOMETRY AND CONIC SECTIONS.

Geometrical Treatise on Conic Sections. With a Collection of
Examples. By W.H. Drew, M.A. 121 pp. (1857). 48. 6d.

Plane Co-ordinate Geometry as applied to the Straight Line and
the Conic Sections. By I. TopHuntER, M.A. Second Edition. 316 pp. (1858).
Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Elementary Treatise on Conic Sections and Algebraic Geometry.
By G. H. Pucxis, M.A. Second Edition. 264 pp. (1856). Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d.

Examples of Analytical Geometry of Three Dimensions. With
the Results. Collected by I. TopuunrER, M.A. 76 pp. (1858). Crown 8vo. 48.
VI. DIFFERENTIAL AND INTEGRAL CALCULUS.

The Differential Calculus. With numerous Examples. By I.
TopuunteR, M.A. ThirdEdition. 404 pp. (1860). Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

The Integral Calculus, and its Applications. With numerous
Examples, By I. TopuuyTeR, M.A. 268 pp. (1857). Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

A Treatise on Differential Equations. By Groner Booze, D.C.L.
486 pp. (1859). Crown 8vo. 14s.

A Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences. By GroraE
Boore, D.C.L. 248 pp. (1840). Crown 8vo. 10s, 6d.

22 CLASS BOOKS FOR COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS,

VI. PROBLEMS AND EXAMPLES.

A Collection of Mathematical Prcblems and Examples. With
Answers. By H. A. Morean, M.A. 190 pp. (1858). Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d.

Senate-House Mathematical Problems. With Solutions—

1848-51. By FERRERS and JACKSON. 8vo. 15s. 6d.
1848-51. (Riders.) By JAMESON. 8vo. 7s. 6d.

1854. By WALTON and MACKENZIE. 8vo. 10s. 6d.
1857. By CAMPION and WALTON. Svo. 8s. 6d. -
1860. By ROUTH and WATSON. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.

VII. LATIN.

Help to Latin Granimar ; or, the Form and Use of Words in
Latin. With Progressive Exercises. By Jostau Wricnt. M.A. 175 pp. (1855).
Crown 8vo. 4s. Gd.

The Seven Kings of Rome. A First Latin Reading Book. By
Jostan Wricut, M.A. Second Edition. 138 pp. (1857). Feap. 8vo. 3s.

Vocabulary and Exercises on “The Seven Kings.” By Jostan
Wricut, M.A. 94 pp. (1857). Feap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

A First Latin Construing Book. By E. Taurine, M.A. 104 pp.
(1855). Feap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. ;

Rules for the Quantity of Syllables in Latin: 10 pp. (1858).
Crown 8vo. 1s.

Theory of Conditional Sentences in Latin and Greek. By R.
Horton Smiry, M.A. 30 pp. (1859). 8vo. 2s. 6d.

Sallust.—Catilina and Jugurtha. With English Notes. For
Schools. By CuarLes Merivate. B.D. Second Edition, 172 pp. (1858). Feap,
8vo. 4s. 6d. ‘

Catilina and Jugurtha may be had separately, price 2s. 6¢. each.

Juvenal. For Schools. With English Notes and an Index. By
J. E. Mayor, M.A. 464 pp. (1853). Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

IX. GREEK.

Hellenica ; a First Greek Reading Book. Being a History of
Greece, taken from Diodorus and Thucydides. By Jostan Wricut. M.A. Second
Edition. 159 pp. (1857). Feap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. |

Demosthenes on the Crown. With English Notes. By B.
Drake, M.A. Second Edition, to which is prefixed Aischines against Ctesiphon.
With English Notes, (1860). Tcap. 8vo 5s.

Demosthenes on the Crown. Translated by J. P. Norris, M.A.
(1850). Crown 8yo0. 3s.

PUBLISHED BY MACMILLAN AND Co. 23

‘ GREEK—continued.

Thucydides. Book VI. With English Notes and an Index.
By P. Frost, Jun. M.A. 110 pp. (1854). 8vo. 7s. 6d.

#ischylus. The Eumenides. With English Notes and Transla-
tion. By B. Draxr, M.A. 144 pp. (1853). 8vo. 7s. 6d.

St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans: With Notes. By CHarizs
Joun Vaueuan, D.D. 157 pp. (1859). Svo. 7s. 6d.

X. ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

The Child’s English Grammar. By E. Tarine, M.A. Demy
18mo. New Edition. (1857). 1s.

Elements of Grammar taught in English. By E. Turina, M.A.
Third Edition. 136 pp. (1860). Demy 18mo. 2s.

Materials for a Grammar of the Modern English Language. By
G. H. ParMiInTER, M.A. 220 pp. (1856). Feap. 8vo. 3s. 6d,

XL. RELIGIOUS.
History of the Christian Church during the Middle Ages. By

ArcHDEACON HarRpwick. 482 pp. (1853). With Maps. Crown 8vo. cloth. 10s. 6d.

History of the Christian Church during the Reformation. By

AxgcHDEACON Harpwick. 459 pp. (1850). Crown 8vo. cloth. 10s. 6d.

History of the Book of Common Prayer. By Francis Procter,
‘M.A. 464 pp. (1860). Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth. 10s. 6d.

History of the Canon of the New Testament during the First
Four Centuries. By Brook Foss Westcott, M.A. 594 pp. (1855). Crown 8vo,
cloth. 12s. 6d.

Introduction to the Study of the Gospels. By Brooxe Foss
Westcott, M.A. ({860). Crown 8vo. cloth. 10s. 6d.

The Church Catechism Illustrated and Explained. By ArTHur
Ramsay, M.A. 204 pp. (1854). 18mo. cloth, 3s. 6d.

Notes for Lectures on Confirmation: With Suitable Prayers.
By C.J. Vauauay, D.D. Third Edition. 70 pp. (1859). Feap. 8vo. 1s. 6d.

Hand-Book to Butler’s Analogy. By C. A. Swanson, M.A. 55 pp.
(1856). Crown 8vo. 1s. 6d.

History of the Christian Church during the First Three Cen-
turies, and the Reformation in England. By Wiui1am Simpson, M.A. 307 pp.
(1857). Feap. 8vo. cloth. 5s.

Analysis of Paley’s Evidences of Christianity. By Caarums H.
Crosse, M.A. 115 pp. (1855). 18mo. 3s, 6d.

ANNOUNCEMENTS.

I.

Life of Edward Forbes, Taz Narvraust. By Gzorcz
Witson, M.D., late Professor of Technology in the University of
Edinburgh, and Arcurpatp Gxixiz, F.G.5., of the Geological
Survey.

IL

An Elementary Treatise on Quaternions. With numerous
Examples. By P.G. Tart, M.A., Professor of Natural Philosophy
in the University of Edinburgh.

Ill.

A Treatise on Geometry of Three Dimensions. By
Percrvau Frost, M.A., St. John’s College, and Josepx WoLsTEN-
Hotz, M.A., Christ’s College, Cambridge.

Iv.

An Elementary Treatise-on Statics. By Gzorcr Rawziy-
son, M.A., late Professor of Natural Philosophy in Elphinstone
Institution, Bombay, formerly of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Vv.

A Treatise on Trilinear Co-ordinates. By N. M. Fernzzs,
M.A., Fellow and Mathematical Lecturer of Gonville and Caius
College.

Vi.

Vacation Tourists in 1860. Edited by Francis Gaxron,

Author of “The Artof Travel.” Comprising Accounts, by Members

of the University of Cambridge and others, of Tours in Italy,
Iceland, the Alps, &e.

VII. i
Pictures of Old England. By Dz. Pavzz. Translated from the
Original by E. C. Orrz.
VIII.

Lectures on the Apocalypse, or Book of the Revelations of
St. John the Divine. By the Rev. F. D. Maurics, M.A.

Ix

Cicero’s Second Philippic with Notes and Introduction.
Translated from the German of Kart Haru. By Joun E. B.
Mayor, M.A. Fellow and Classical Lecturer of St. John’s
College, Cambridge, Editor of * Juvenal,” &c.

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.

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