RIVER LAMPREY 



like the Eel, which goes to its ancestral home, the sea, 

 to perform that all-important operation. 



Mr. C. Tate Regan, J\I.A., gives a list of 23 species of 

 fresh-water fishes that are peculiar to the British Isles. 

 Of these no less than 15 of the 23 species belong to the 

 Char kind, and Char, as Mr. Tate Regan says, " are 

 essentially fishes of mountain lakes, which are usually 

 deep and cold ; in our islands they are found in Scot- 

 land, Ireland, the Lake District of England, and North 

 Wales, in fact in all parts where there are suitable lakes." 



For the purpose of this book it has been thought best 

 to include those kinds of fishes with which the average 

 individual is likely to come into contact, and as to which 

 the general reader requires information, but we have 

 stretched a point in including those familiar species 

 which, like the Eel and Salmon already referred to, 

 pass part of their time in fresh-water and part in salt. 



Thirty-two species await attention, and these may 

 now be dealt with. 



River Lamprey. — Lampetra flwviaHUs (Fig. 29). The 



name Lamprey is derived from an old Latin word Lam- 



preda which is corrupted from a more ancient word 



Lampetra, from lamhere, to lick, and petra, a stone. 



It is also called Nine-Eyes and Stone-Eel, the former 



from its eye, nasal slit, and seven gill-openings, and the 



latter because of its habit of attaching itself to stones. 



This small eel-shaped fish, the possessor of a long 



tongue, with a rasp attached to it which enables it to rip 



other fishes to pieces so as to feed upon their flesh, is 



69 



