GILLAROO TROUT. ,27 



of the size of a large chicken, that it is white and excellent eating, is vastly broader than 

 a Trout of the same length, and that some of the fish are three feet long ; some from twelve 

 to eighteen (inches) long; that the Trout itself is bad eating." 



The stomach is often much distended with the quantity of molluscous food therein con- 

 tained, and one can feel the shells within grating against each other, on pressure with the 

 fingers. Besides molluscs, its favourite diet, the Gillaroo will feed on flies of various kinds, 

 such as the Ephcina-ida; and Phryganida:, etc., in their perfect or imago state, and also the 

 larvee of various aquatic insects of these and other families of insects. Sometimes the stomach 

 is full of only one species of shell-fish. In the stomachal contents before me, taken from 

 a two-pound Lough Melvin fish, caught by myself with a fly, there is only one species of 

 mollusc in any appreciable quantity, and that is the Liniuciis pcrcgcr, with young specimens 

 of which the stomach was absolutely crammed; in other fish I have found a variety, as 

 BytJiinia icntaciilata, Ancyclus fluviatilis, Limiicjis pcrcgcr, two or three species of Planorbis, and 

 the curved sand-cases of some of the Trlchopicra (the Mystacida and ScricostoDia of Pictet).* 



The flesh of the Gillaroo is as pink as a Trout in good condition, but neither Lieutenant 

 Colonel Masefield nor myself considered them as nice eating as the Common Trout or the 

 Black- Fin. We thought there was a decidedly molluscous flavour about the flesh ; and cer- 

 tainly the examination of a Gillaroo' s stomach is, as I know from experience, by no means 

 an agreeable task, owing to the very strong odour exhaled from the swallowed and partly 

 digested shell-fish. "Very hot, Sir," was the remark elicited from one of the boatmen, on 

 my mentioning this fact to him. Thompson, too, says that the fishermen consider the Gillaroo 

 inferior to the other Salmonida: for the table. Barrington says that the stomachs of these 

 fish were in his time sometimes served up at table in Ireland under the name of gizzards ; 

 I do not know whether such a dish is ever now served up in any part of Ireland. 



The following is the description of a specimen caught by Lieutenant Colonel Masefield 

 on July 17th., i878:^Total length ten inches and a half; length of head two inches and 

 one eighth; greatest breadth of body two inches and five eighths; snout short and convex; 

 maxillary longer than snout, broad and flat, extending a little below the posterior orbit : in 

 smaller specimens it does not extend beyond the middle of the eye ; praeoperculum with 

 lower limb rounded off; dorsal fin with large oval dark spots, occasionally mixed with a few 

 red ones ; pectoral pointed, its length being about one half the distance of its base from that 

 of ventral ; caudal fin emarginate : in young specimens this fin is more deeply incised ; 

 adipose fin tipped with red ; head rather small ; gill-cover with numerous round black spots, 

 and with a yellowish tinge ; back glossy bluish black ; sides of a beautiful apricot above 

 lateral line, shading into a delicate yellow below that line; body covered with numerous 

 large clear black and vermilion reticulated spots; belly white; colour of pectoral and ventral 

 fins deep vivid pink; eye large, irides white. The teeth are feeble: those on the vomer are 

 arranged in a double series, and are persistent through life. The whole body of the fish 

 is full and deep; the hinder part of the tail is, also deep. 



The fin-ray formula is 



Dorsal 13 — 14. 

 Pectoral 13. 

 Ventral g. 

 Anal 13. 



The specimen figured was caught by Lieutenant Colonel Masefield on July 17th., 1878, 

 in Lough Melvin. 



* Molluscs are frequently found in the stomachs of other species of Sa/moiiidcc without this peculiarity of that 

 organ; but there is this difference, that in the Gillaroo shell-fish is the usual diet, in other species it is an occasional 

 one. 



