GRAINING. 43 



^RAINING. 



T^ACE, like most other kinds of fish, are subject to variety, and ichthyologists now regard 

 -L-^ the Graining, first mentioned by Pennant, and described as a different species by Yarrell 

 in the Linnsean Society's Transactions (vol. xvii., pi. i., p. 5), under the name of Lciiciscus 

 laiicasiriensis, as merely a variety of the Dace. Pennant says, "in the Mersey, near War- 

 rington, and in the river Alt, which runs by Sephton, Lancashire, into the Mersey near 

 Formby, a fish called the Graining is taken, which in some respects resembles the Dace, yet 

 it is a distinct and perhaps new species." — [Tour in Scollaud and Voyage to the Hebrides, pp. 

 II, 12.) The Earl of Derby, grandfather of the present Earl, supplied Yarrell with numbers 

 of this fish, which that naturalist considered was entitled to rank as a distinct species. 

 Mr. Thompson also obtained specimens of the Graining from the river Leam, near Leamington, 

 and at Guy's Cliff, Warwickshire. The nose of the Graining is said to be more rounded 

 than in the Dace, the scales rather larger, the radiating lines on the scales of the lateral 

 line less numerous than those of the Dace ; in colour the upper part of the head and body 

 is pale drab, tinged with red, and separated from the lighter parts of the body below by a 

 well-defined line. In the Dace the number of scales forming the lateral line is about fifty- 

 two, as near as I can count from specimens before me ; in the Graining Yarrell gives the 

 number as forty-eight. There seems to be no recorded difterence in the form of the throat 

 teeth in the Dace and Graining. I have been unable to see any specimens of this fish, 

 which is probably a mere variety of the Dace ; the same perhaps may be said of the Dobule 

 Roach (Leueiscus dobiila) of Yarrell, which seems to be a young Dace. 



