SEA TROUT— MIGRATIONS. l^S 



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Habits. — This species having much of the habits of the salmon cannot be 

 termed so game a fish, neither is it so irowerful, although very active. When 

 adult it appears to move more of an evening and during the night than duriuo' 

 the day, and frequently selects waters which are more sluggish than suit the 

 salmon, although if the bottom is sandy or even muddy, it is not infrequently found 

 at the tail of a pool or where the current is quiet, but is of a roving disposition. 

 When large it appears in some streams to lie rather deep in the water, is a wary 

 and sharp-sighted form, and the angler generally requires a long lino combined 

 with great caution while attempting to take it, but if it be in the grilse stage, as 

 the white-fish, or up to a few^pounds in weight, it dashes at flies. It is very 

 destructive to small fish and by no means averse to consuming the eggs or the 

 young of the salmon. While ascending to breed the sea trout does not abstain 

 from food as does the salmon. 



These fish can be retained in aquaria and even thrive there, thus Mr. C. 

 Jackson, EepoH on the Salmon Disease, 1880, p. Ill, in a letter dated Juno 20th, 

 1880, observed, " We have in one of our sea-water tanks (Southport Aquarium) 

 two splendid sea trout. They came to us a few ounces in weight about two years 

 since and are now several jjounds in weight. They have not been in fresh water 

 since they came." On the other hand some which had been received at South 

 Kensington from Lochbuie and kept two years in tanks of fresh water are said 

 to have given eggs in the autumn of 1886, showing that absence from salt water 

 had not arrested the reproductive process. 



Migrations. — In many respects those of the sea trout are similar to what occur 

 in the salmon, so far as when the smolts descend to the sea, also when these fish 

 are entering and ascending rivers for several months in the year. While thero 

 are likewise, as might be expected, certain conditions in the fish which tend to 

 foster these migrations as well as favourable conditions of the rivers. In 

 Suthei'landshire* the great run of .sea trout is from the first week in June, its 

 height being about the middle of that month subsequent to which it decreases ; 

 the small herlings begin about the middle of July, and these are irrespective of 

 the autumn run ascending to spawn. While, continued Sir W. Jardine, " in 

 appi-oaching the entrance of rivers or in seeking out, as it were, some one they 

 preferred, shoals of this fish may be seen coasting the bays and headlandSjf 

 leaping and sporting in great numbers from 1 lb. to 3 lb. or 4 lb. in weight ; and 

 in some of the smaller bays the shoals can be traced several times circling it and 

 apparently feeding."! 



* Sir W. Jardine, Edinburijh New Philosophical Journal, 1835, p. 49, observed that in 

 Sutherlandshire the tacksmen or fishers distiHRuished the sea trout only as the larger or smaller 

 kinds, and the seasons at which they run. This commences the first week in June, is at its 

 height about the middle of tlie month, decreasing as the season advances, until they are succeeded 

 by the later running fish. The smaller sea trout or herling, in Sutherlandshire, he observed 

 commences about the middle of July. 



f The late Mr. Arthur observed that " the Edchaig, in Argyleshire, enters the Holy Loch near 

 Kilmun, and in June has a fine run of Salmo trutta from IJ to 61b. In August and September a 

 smaller variety ascends known as bhickucbs, owing to the dark colour of their heads. Towards 

 the end of the season a few bull trout. Loch Lomond, from June to the end of the winter, has 

 a variety of the sea trout between salmon-trout and sewin. On the east side a race like the true 

 salmon-trout runs up during August and September." 



J Mr. W. Anderson- Smith has lately remarked on the migrations of these fish on the west 

 coast of Scotland, which he observed were contrary to the movements of the salmon. " Those 

 who seine for sea trout do not find the salmon among their prey." " The sea trout keep close in 

 shore comparatively speaking, and lay themselves open to the operations of the scringers (seine- 

 net fishermen). At regular intervals, more especially at spring tides in June and July, the sea 

 trout pass slowly upwards along the shore to their various rivers, continuing to do so till October. 

 By the middle of November they have mostly left the fresh waters .... not only have the fish 

 of each several stream a character of their own, but they are found intermingled with the Salmo 

 fario from the smaller streams that have taken to the sea, and in consequence donned a livery of 



silver more or less pronounced We have little doubt that the Salmo fario takes to the sea 



at certain seasons when we cannot find a single representative in the small streams that enter 

 the Western Highland Lochs. We have found them amidst the sea-weed at low water where the 

 stream struggles over the salt-watery shore, while we could not find a single point of specific 

 distinction between the silvered specimens amongst the shoals of sea trout and their dark- 

 coloured congeners in the burns.'' " We have also taken in certain streams fishes which wo 



