APPENDIX. 61 



have since made numerous inquiries of woodmen in various places, 

 and they all agreed in saying that they had never known an instance 

 of a beech being struck. 



(Q.) 



Grayling very liable to Disease. 



Grayling, in some seasons, are frequently found dead in rivers. 

 Sir Humphrey Davy, in bis * Salmonia,' states that " great numbers 

 of large grayling died in the Avon, below Ringwood, in Hampshire, 

 in the hot summer of 1825," and which he had "no doubt were 

 killed by the great heat of that summer in July." In the year 1848, 

 a great many large grayling died in the Itchen, in Hampshire, and 

 all these, upon examination, were found to have a sore on the back 

 very near the tail. Not having an opportunity of examining these 

 fish with a magnifying glass, I am unable to conjecture what could 

 have been the occasion of their death ; but a short time since, in the 

 month of August, I observed in a pond several small carp, about an 

 inch long, some of which were dead and others dying. On examining 

 some of the carp with a powerful magnifier, I found adhering to them 

 a little animal exactly like a flounder or flat fish, with the exception 

 of its having apparently two legs or fins under the belly and very near 

 the tail. They were about the size of a small pea or vetch-seed split. 

 In one instance, this animal had eaten off the scales of the carp on 

 one side near the back and tail ; and in another instance, one had got 

 into the gills. I put these carp into a tumbler of water, having first 

 removed the insects, but they all died in a few hours. The flounders 

 were very active little animals, and moved at a great rate in a glass 

 of water, making rapid motions with their little legs or fins near the 

 tail. Had the grayling been examined with a magnifying glass, it is 

 probable that there might have been found attached to them some 

 insect which had occasioned the wound on the back. 



