leather-mouthed tribe, the teeth are in the throat. It is prolific, gregarious, and very lively, it being fond of playing near the surface of the water in summer. In its motions it is rapid. Its usual haunt is where the water is deep, and the stream is gentle, near the piles of bridges. It seldom weighs more than a pound and a half, or exceeds ten inches in length. The Dace is found in the south of Germany, France, and Italy, as well as in England.

THE CHUB.

THE Chub is of a coarse nature, and when out of season is full of small hairy bones; it seldom exceeds the weight of five pounds. The body is of an oblong shape nearly round; the head, which is large, and the back, are of a deep dusky green, the sides silvery, and the belly white; the pectoral fins are of a pale yellow, the ventral and anal ones red; and the tail brown, tinged with blue at its extremity, and slightly forked. This fish frequents the deep holes of rivers, under hollow banks, but in the summer season, when the sun shoots his golden rays through the waters, to the smooth pebbles that pave the bed of the stream, it ascends to the surface, and lies quiet under the cooling shade of some trees that spread their foliage on the verdant banks; but yet, though it seems to indulge itself in slumbers, the fear of danger, that innate

sense of self-preservation, one of the first laws of nature, keeps the creature awake, and at the least alarm it dives with rapidity to the bottom. It lives on all sorts of insects; in March and April, the Chub is to be caught with large red worms; in June and July with flies, snails, and cherries; but in August and September, the proper bait is good cheese pounded in a mortar, with some saffron and a little butter. Some make a paste of cheese and Venice turpentine for the Chub in winter, at which season this fish is much better than at any other; the bones are less troublesome, being more easily separated from the flesh in this season, and the flesh more firm and better tasted; the roe is also well flavoured in general. If the angler keeps his bait at the bottom in cold weather, and near the surface in the hot season, the fish is sure to bite soon, and will afford much pleasing sport. When the Chub seizes a bait, he bites with so much eagerness that his jaws are often heard to chop like those of a dog.

The ancient naturalists have enumerated five varieties of this fish; some of which are found in the Danube and the Rhine. The above species inhabits most of the rivers in this island.

THE PARROT FISH.

THE head of this fish is somewhat similar to that of the carp. The body is broad, the tail narrow. The ground colour is red, which is beautifully relieved by broad silvery stripes all along the body; the belly is white. The fins are small; the scales broad, thin, finely radiated, and very loose. The pectoral, tail, and ventral fins are yellow at their origin, and gray at the extremities; and a kind of spine runs along the root of the ventral fin. This species is found in both Indies.

THESE fish are esteemed the most elegant of all the finny tribe. The male is of a bright red colour from the top of the head to the middle of the body; the rest is of a gold colour, but it is so splendid that the finest gilding cannot approach it. The female is white, but her tail and half of her body resembles the lustre of silver. The red and white colours are not always the distinguishing marks of the male and female; but the females are known by several white spots which are seen round the orifices, that serve them as organs of hearing, and the males by having these spots much brighter. The nostrils of the Gold-fish are double, wide, and placed near the eyes. The body is covered with large scales, and the tail is forked; but there is no fish in which the fins vary so much. The colour of the Gold-fish changes with age. In the first year it is generally black, a colour very rarely found among the inhabitants of the watery element. In the course of a few years, silver spots make their appearance, and gradually increase till they cover the whole body. It then turns red, and becomes more beautiful the older it grows. Sometimes, indeed, it turns red before it assumes the silvery hue, and in some instances the fish is red from the very first.

These fish are natives of China, and the handsomest species is found in a lake not far from the mountain

of Tsienking, near the city of Tchangou, situated in the province of Che Kiang, in China. From this place they were transported to the other provinces of that empire, to Japan, and at length to Europe. They were first brought to England in the year 1661, and they now breed in this country as readily as the carp.

The SILVER FISH is a native of the seas in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope, and is about the size and shape of a small carp, which it also resembles in taste. It is of a white colour, transversely striped with silvery lines.

THE whole body of this fish, and the ground colour of the fins, are of a beautiful sanguineous red, darker towards the back, and lighter towards the belly; the membranes of the fins are almost white, and the red rays shining through them have a very fine effect; the three white points of the tail form to the idea a trident or a tulip. The head is short but large, the mouth is small, the nostrils are single. The pupil of the eye is black, the iris yellow; and the eyes are protuberant; the back is round; the lateral line nearer the back than the head. The scales are large; the rays of the fins ramified. This beautiful fish is found in the fresh waters of China, where it is kept like the gold-fish, of which it is probably a variety.

THE head of the Cod fish is smooth; the colour on the back and sides is of a dusky olive, variegated with yellow spots; its belly is white; the lateral line runs from the gills to the tail, which at the abdomen is curved, but elsewhere is straight; its scales are very small, and adhere firmly to the skin; its roes are large; at the angle of the lower jaws there hangs a single beard, which is short, seldom exceeding a finger's length; its tongue is broad; it has several rows of teeth, like the pike; and in the palate, near the orifice of the stomach, and near the gills, it has small clusters of teeth. It has three back fins, two at the gills, and two at the breast, two others behind the anus, and the tail is plain.

These fish are found only in the seas of the northern parts of the world; and the principal places of rendezvous are the sandbanks of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New England. These shallows are their favourite situations, as they abound with worms, a food that is peculiarly grateful to them. Another cause of their attachment to these places is their vicinity to the polar seas, where they return to spawn. There they deposit their roes in full security, and afterwards repair, as soon as the more southern seas are open, to the banks for subsistence; consequently the Cod may justly be placed at the head of the migrating or wandering tribes of fish. Few are taken