176 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



carried on among the salmon arc so applicable to the sea trout as to render 

 repetition unnecessarj^. The time of year, however, in which these latter fish spawn 

 would seem to be about a month, or even more, earlier than in the salmon, com- 

 mencing in September or October along with the river trout.* On N"oveml)er 

 2Gth, lyr4. Sir J. Maitland netted ten sea trout in the Stirling district; five were 

 males, and five females ; the first male was nearly spent. In some captured in the 

 Teith and retained at Howietoun to be artificially spawned on November 24th, 

 18^0, but few eggs and little milt were found remaining, and on November 26th, 

 1885, when netting the Teith for salmon (then just commencing to spawn) we 

 took two sea trout kelts. On November 12th, 1884, when out for these fish two 

 pairs were seen at their redds in the Stirling district, but the rivers were rather 

 swollen, t In a very severe winter, however. Couch found sewin depositing eggs 

 in the Fowey as late as January 22nd. Mr. Brady observed that in Ireland the 

 white trout spawn a month before the salmon, and the kelts are very ravenous. 

 As a general rule these fish commence spawning in the month of October : in the 

 Usk the eai'liest dates recorded have been September 27th and October 1st, 1873. 



That sea trout can breed without migi-ating to the sea has been shown 

 (p. 143 ante), in fact they may become land-locked similarly to the salmon (see 

 p. 103 ante). The eggs of these fish can no more be incubated in salt water than 

 can those of the salmon and of the fresh-water trout. Mi'. Jackson, Land and 

 Tl'a^r (June 10th, 1870), observed that the " Salmon-trout cast their ova in the 

 salt water in the Southport Aquarium, without assuming the appearance of kelts, 

 or even leaving off feeding greedily on shrimps. They did not attempt to make 

 a redd, and the spawn was immediately eaten by their fellows." While the egg.s 

 of this species, similarly to those of the salmon, have been safely conveyed to and 

 hatched at the antipodes. J 



Similarly to the salmon we find sea front occasionally ready for breeding at 

 inappropriate times, thus '' North Countryman," Field, 1883, writing from the 

 Orkneys, observed, having the previous day, July 19th, captured a sea trout 

 with a worm in the sea, " It was a female fish, in good order, weighing 61b. 2 oz.; 

 but was tinged very slightly with a dark shade on the belly. When opened the 

 roe was nearly fully developed — in fact, just as we expect to see at the end of 

 Sejjtember. The fish was good and curdy, however." 



Sewin would seem to often keei^ in shoals of females, for several observers 

 have noticed the almost entire absence of male examples among' the peal or sewin 

 in salt water, and Dillwyn in his Fauna of Swansea, p. 13, observed that " Mr. 

 Talbot has found in his streams at Margam that the bull trout are always males, 

 and the sewin females," or in short that in that locality males were termed " bull 

 trout," and females were designated as " sewin," being even thought a distinct 

 species. Couch never found a male peal, but observing about thirty forming 

 redds in the Looc river on January 22nd, he had them netted, and all of them 

 were found to be females with the roe running out, except one male which 

 resembled a bull trout rather than a peal. Possibly the two sexes may keep 

 separ.atod during periods of migration, for certainly in those I have obtained from 



* " As each season came round wlicu rods were put aside, watching hundreds of ftahno tnitta 

 on the spawning beds in Novemher, working side by side with their cousins Suliiio J'tirio, the 

 astonisliing fact has been to me that hybrids between the two species are not more common than 

 is actually the case. That such do occur, jicrsonally, I have not the slightest doubt, though their 

 identification in a natural state still remains to be determined. The milt ejected from the male 

 fish of either species cannot fail to fertilize the ova of both, for are they not spawned close to each 

 other on the same bed of gravel, and under exactly similar conditions ?" — R. B. L., Field, February 

 14th, 188.5. 



t It is often necessary to wait for a frost, which freezes the small rills and then reduces the 

 volume of water in the streams. 



J In the Pirii-eediiiiis of the Zool. Soc. 18C9, p. 473, Mr. M. AUport, August 10th, 18G9, 

 observed respecting the 15,000 eggs of the sea trout sent to Tasmania in 18GG, a fair percentage 

 hatched, and most of the smolts were allowed to descend to the sea ; " but the Tasmanian Salmon 

 Commissioners retained a few in a suitable pond, having gravelly rapids adapted for spawning 

 grounds attached. Twelve of these fish attained weights varying from % lb. to 1.^ lb. ; and during 

 the end of June and beginning of July last, four pairs formed rids and deposited spawn, in which 

 the fish are now distinctly visible." 



