246 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



In this state the fish in Scottish parlance is a kipper. 

 This term is derived from the hook or kype of the male. 

 Mr. Brander, Field, October 1886, remarks: "A kip-nosed 

 man, in Scotch, means a man with a turned-up pug nose." 

 Reference to a Scotch Dictionary will show that anything 

 turned up at the corners is said to be kippered. 



A female full of spawn is a baggit, and, as we all know, 

 after spawning and milting both go by the name of kelt. 

 We were very much taken aback the first time we came 

 in contact, when fishing in the Usk some years ago, 

 with a kelt, having got somehow or other a different idea, 

 thinking it must be something like a trout out of season, 

 black and discoloured, instead of finding it with silvery 

 sides and a bluish-green back instead of grey-blue silver. 

 We recollect getting hold of one fine fellow, who gave us 

 grand sport, taking twenty minutes to get him in ; he 

 weighed 18 Ibs., a male fish, bright and silvery, still only 

 a kelt, but a mended one. But where was his beak ? 

 There were the curved jaws, but no hook or kype. 



Very much has been written concerning this appendage 

 to the male salmon and its uses. At one time it was 

 supposed that the kype was for the purpose of forming the 

 spawning-bed for the female, which it could not possibly 

 do unless the fish turned on its back or opened its mouth 

 wider than a hippopotamus. It is now well known that 

 the female sqoops out the cavity in the gravel chiefly by 

 means of her tail and lower part of the body, and that 

 the hook of the male is for defensive purposes. 



In the Fishing Gazette, March 1886, a correspondent, 

 under the name of " Piscator," relates how he saw " on 

 a spawning- bed " " six or seven male fish surrounding a 

 female. There was one fellow who appeared to be king ; 

 whenever one attempted to come too near the female, he 

 made a rush at him, seized him, and shook him as a 

 terrier- dog would shake a rat. This game was carried on 

 for a considerable time, until every one was more or less 

 torn to such an extent that in a few days several of them 

 were found lying dead on the bank, and I had no trouble 

 in identifying them as those engaged in the combat." 



