NOTES ON SOME SCOTTISH SALMONID/E 75 



NOTES ON SOME SCOTTISH SALMONID^. 

 By J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. 



DURING the lifetime of my late lamented friend Sir James 

 R. G. Maitland, and when Dr. Francis Day was a frequent 

 visitor and worker at Howietoun, I used to urge a more 

 thorough study of variations among British Salmonidae and 

 the publication of a lovely monographic treatise on Trout. 

 Some plates were, I believe, even prepared with this end in 

 view, but the real preliminary work required was never 

 systematically undertaken. In order to carry out such a 

 plan of study fully and efficiently, it would be necessary to 

 form a syndicate or small Angling Company, who would 

 contain amongst their active workers at least one capable 

 artist and colourist to draw and paint in colours on the spot ; 

 a naturalist to note particulars of locality and circumstances, 

 and preserve the choicest specimens ; and the remainder, 

 anglers who possess youth and vigour and enthusiasm, to 

 climb to the less accessible lochs and streams for specially 

 interesting varieties. Needless to say, each of the party ought 

 to be both angler and naturalist. 



In the well-known angling county of Sutherland, with its 

 innumerable lochs and streams, there are many interesting 

 varieties of Salmonidae. All of these, however, rank, I believe 

 with Dr. Day, only as varieties of the principal species or 

 types recognised in that author's " History of British Fishes," 

 and still more recently accentuated in his " British and Irish 

 Salmonidae." These species are : The Salmon, Salmo 

 salar, L. (" Brit, and Irish Salmonidae," p. 51); the Sea-trout, 

 Salmo tnttta, L. (op. cit. p. 1 49) ; the Fresh- water Trout, 

 Salmo far io, L. (op. cit. p. 182); the Char, Salmo alpinus, 

 L. (op. cit. p. 112); and all other so-called species must, I 

 consider, have their names sunk to the value of mere 

 varieties such as the Great Lake Trout, Salmo fcro.r, and 

 many others. I am not speaking, of course, of aberrant forms 

 of the Salmonidae, such as the Sperling (Osmerus eperlanns). 



I have in the following notes mainly to do with certain 

 varieties of the Salmonidae belonging to the above species 

 which are found in different lakes and rivers in Scotland 



