ON THE GRAYLING. '21 



mummy state. I have always found flies, and 

 those principally of the more delicate sorts of 

 Ephemerae. 



He rises with great velocity and almost perpen- 

 dicularly to seize his prey, at the top of the water, 

 and descends as quickly after making a summerset, 

 for the performance of which feat, the figure of his 

 body and the great dorsal fin, seem well adapted ; 

 his agility on this occasion is indeed so great, that 

 he seems a phantom or flitting shadow; hence, 

 say some, his name Umbra corrupted to Umber. 

 It has been supposed that he feeds upon the water- 

 thyme, but I never found any vegetable whatever 

 in the stomach, though I have opened as many 

 Grayling as Trout. He has, however, a rather 

 peculiar scent when just taken from the water, 

 fragrant and grateful to the fisherman, and thought 

 by many to resemble that of thyme, consequently 

 has been also called (by Linnaeus) the Salmo Thy- 

 mallus, and by St. Ambrose " the flower of 

 fishes." 



He seems to congregate more than the Trout, 

 and is not so easily driven from his station by an 

 approach, but whether this be owing to his lying 

 lower down in the water, or from his being na- 

 turally a less timid fish, remains yet to be ascer- 

 tained. 



