466 



Fishes. 



M 



THE TEOUT. (Salmo-fario.} 



THIS fish, in figure, resembles the salmon ; it has a short 

 roundish head, and a blunt snout. Trouts are fresh- 

 water fish, and they breed and live constantly in rivers 

 and small pellucid streams which sparkle over clean 

 pebbles and beds of sand. 



They feed on river flies and other water insects, and 

 are so fond of them, and so blindly voracious, that an- 

 glers deceive them with artificial flies made of feathers, 

 wool, and other materials, which resemble very closely 

 the natural ones. In Lough Neagh, in Ireland, Trouts 

 have been caught weighing thirty pounds ; and we are 

 told, that in the Lake of Geneva, and in the northern 

 lakes of England, they are found of a still larger size. 

 It holds the first place among the river fish, and its flesh 

 is very delicious, but difficult of digestion when old, or 

 kept too long. The3 r spawn in the month of December, 

 and deposit their eggs in the gravel at the bottom of 

 rivers, dykes, and ponds. "Unlike most other fish, the 



