THE SALMON FAMILY 85 



Reference has already been made to the extraordinary 

 change that takes place in brown trout in Tasmania and 

 New Zealand. These fish at home would be called bull 

 trout. Further, Sir Herbert Maxwell quotes in his book 

 on " British Freshwater Fishes " from so high an 

 authority as Sir Gibson Maitland, that if the young of 

 bull trout, hatched from bull trout eggs, are prevented 

 from going to sea, they retain the habits and character 

 of ordinary brown trout. 



Of our fresh-water salmonoids, there is little doubt 

 that such fish as the Great Lake trout (Salmo ferox), the 

 Loch Leven, and the gillaroo and others, are merely 

 varieties of the common brown trout due to perverted 

 feeding habits and special environment. 



The Great Lake trout is a cannibal pure and 

 simple, and the strongest evidence that this par 

 ticular trout is merely a perverted brown trout is that 

 the young of this fish as a Great Lake trout do not exist. 

 If the reader has any doubt of the Loch Leven being a 

 brown trout in disguise, let him import some of this 

 wild sporting fish, and turn them into a pond or stream 

 where no other trout exist. Removed from the food 

 and deep waters of Loch Leven, in a few months' time 

 these imported fish will be difficult to distinguish from 

 the common brown trout. 



The gillaroo of Ireland is distinguished by his large 

 brilliant red spots, his golden colour, and the immensely 

 thickened lining of the stomach wall. The coloration 

 and the thickening of the stomach wall can be accounted 



