HABITS OF THE GRAYLING. 219 



Continent I have seen fishes far more bril- 

 liantly coloured than in England — the lower 

 part almost a bright orange, and the back 

 fin approaching to the colour of the damask 

 rose, or rather of an anemone. The grayling 

 spawns in April, and sometimes as late as the 

 beginning of May : the female is generally 

 then followed by two or three males. She 

 deposits her ova in the tails of sharp streams, 

 and the males, rubbing against her, shed 

 upon the ova the melt or seminal fluid. I do 

 not know how long a time is required for the 

 exclusion of the young ones ; but in the end 

 of July, or beginning of August, they are of 

 the size of sprats, four or five inches long, 

 and already sport merrily at a fly. Though I 

 have often taken grayling in bad season, yet 

 I have rarely observed upon them the same 

 kind of leech *, or louse, which is so often 



* I may mention one remarkable instance as an ex- 

 ception, which has recently occurred to me, the 21st 

 of May, 1828. I was fishing in the Save, between 

 Wochain and Veldes, in some deep, clear, bright, green 

 pools. I caught five or six grayling between 15 and 

 17 inches long, that had all leeches near the tail; they 

 were beautifully coloured, and had probably got these 

 parasitic animals after their spawning, when they re- 



