NAMES OF OTHER SPECIES. 83 



AMICUS. Good ! I quite approve. What have 

 you to say of the specific names of Ferox, Solar, 

 Erox, Umbla? 



PISCATOR. You impose on me a hard task. 

 To begin with the last on your list, the charr, 

 S. umbia, the umbra probably of Ausonius, 

 may owe its name, it has been conjectured 

 with some plausibility, to its colour and shy- 

 ness, seen as a shadow, obscurely seen in 

 the water. Of the first, S. feroz, a name re- 

 cently given, the explanation is obvious ; the 

 size of the fish, its strength and voracity, its for- 

 midable teeth, have well earned it this its appel- 

 lation, that is, if it be truly a distinct species, 

 and not the common trout, the growth of many 

 years, coarsely and abundantly fed. The word 

 Solar applied to the chief of the Salmonidae, 

 the noble salmon, labours under the same ob- 

 scurity as the generic name, and may be held to 

 be a synonyme. Of eriox and/arz'0, I can offer 

 nothing satisfactory, even less so than of the 

 provincial terms, Mort and Spod, with which 

 we started our conversation ; perhaps these 

 also were originally provincial names, and might 

 have been used with as little accuracy. There 

 is a verse or two of Ausonius which may be 



G 2 



