Is nearly allied to the roach. It is a small glittering fish, familiar to most persons from its playing about on warm summer evenings on the surface of rivers in chase of flies, bread-crumbs, &c. The scales are employed in making artificial pearls.
THE BREAM, (Cyprinus Brama,)
Is a flatfish fish, not unlike the carp in several points, but much broader in proportion to its length and thickness. Its head is truncated, the upper jaw a little projecting; the forehead a bluish black; cheeks yellowish; body olive, paler below; fins obscure, with an oblong conical process at the base of the ventral fins; twenty-nine rays in the anal fin; its greatest length is about two feet. The scales are large, and of a bright colour; the tail has the form of a crescent. It frequents the deepest parts of rivers, lakes, and ponds. These fish spawn in May, secluding themselves at that time so carefully in the ooze at the bottom of the water that they are seldom found with either soft or hard roe in them, so that in some countries the name is often used to denote sterility. The flesh is not comparable to that of the carp.
The White Bream never exceeds a pound in weight, and is consequently much smaller than the Common or Carp Bream, which frequently weighs seven or eight pounds.
In some of the lakes of Ireland great quantities of Bream are taken, many of them of very large size, sometimes weighing as much as twelve or even fourteen pounds each. A place conveniently situated for the fishing is baited with grain, or other coarse food, for ten days or a fortnight regularly, after which great sport is usually obtained. The party frequently catch several hundredweight, which are distributed among the poor of the vicinity, who split and dry them with great care, to eat with their potatoes.