228 COMMON TKOUT. 



differ from any that are found elsewhere; for they are not only 

 unlike bees and wasps, but they unite in themselves the likeness 

 of all these insects. The people of that country call them hippuri 

 horseflies; and as they fly near the surface of the water they 

 are easily discerned by the fish, which therefore glides gently to 

 the place where their shadows fall, and, just as a wolf snatches 

 a sheep from the flock, with a gulp it seizes the fly, and instantly 

 plunges with it into the depth of the stream. This has been 

 noted and copied by the fishermen, but with some variation, for 

 they do not employ the natural fly, which will scarcely bear 

 the handling, but they imitate it by art. A small quantity of 

 purple wool is wrapped round the hook, and a couple of wings 

 are added from yellow neck feathers of a cock. The rod and 

 line are each four cubits long, and this contrivance, when skilfully 

 cast on the stream, is found eminently successful." (Hist, of 

 Animals, B. 15, C. 1.) It was in Germany, and there only as 

 far as we are informed, that fishing for Trout Avas formerly for- 

 bidden to all but the privileged, and in some States the penalty 

 was the loss of a hand. 



Within a certain range of temperature, from the far north 

 of Europe, and perhaps of America, as also in brooks high 

 up towards their source in lofty situations, to so far south as 

 Italy, the Trout is a common fish even in places where no 

 other fish is found. Sir John Malcolm discovered it in a stream 

 of a mountain in Aderbijan, a province of Persia; and Bishop 

 Heber observed it in the Himalayan Mountains, although it 

 does not exist in the lower districts of India. On the other 

 hand Captain Parry found it, or a kindred species, in a lake 

 in Melville Island, where the temperature falls to minus 55. 

 But everywhere its habits vary with the season; for when 

 young and in summer it prefers the shallows; but as the sun 

 loses its power it retires to the deeper water, and shelters itself 

 under the protection of some overhanging bank, or the knarled 

 root of some projecting tree; of which it is the belief of 

 anglers the most likely to be chosen is the willow. To this 

 the older fish resort on the appearance of danger; and from 

 this they do not often wander far away; for, contrary to their 

 habits when young, the aged Trout is nocturnal, and it is by 

 night that its courage enables it to sally forth with eager and 

 even ravenous appetite, to seize Avhatever it finds in motion. 



