AND ANGLING SONGS. I I I 



the monster trout of some of eur Highland lakes, I am disposed 

 to think it has been carried too far, or rather that there has 

 been a want of care shown in making the separation ; for, judging 

 from a number of specimens examined by me of the reputed 

 ferox, I make bold to say that, in nine cases out of ten, what 

 are passed off as such present no peculiarities in their structure 

 and appearance, beyond what age and size may sufficiently ac- 

 count for, which warrant their being regarded as anything else 

 but large common trout. It is not often that the naturalist falls 

 into this error ; he is usually too nice in his distinctions, and 

 too fond of amplification. Of this habit, the setting up of the 

 gillarroo trout of Loch Muloch Corrie, in Assynt, is an example ; 

 so is the assignation of a specific character, simply on account 

 of its being furnished with a greater number of coecal appendages 

 than any of its congeners, to the Lochleven trout. I can see no 

 end, when once entered upon, to this conversion of mere varieties 

 of the fario into separate and distinct species. 



As a consequence, in fact, of the recognition of the Salmo 

 cacifer, or Levenensis of Parnell, arose the claims advanced by 

 Dr. Knox in favour of what he terms the estuary-trout, and the 

 endeavour made by him, in that curious production entitled 

 Fish and Fishing in the Lone Glens of Scotland, to derange, as 

 far as it has been already established, the natural history of the 

 Salmonidce. Almost at the outset of this little work, the Doctor 

 startles us with the following. Discoursing on the genera, or 

 natural families of Salmones, as he terms them, he proceeds : 

 ' There is first the Salmo salar, or trout; some call it the fario.' 

 Eh ? ' %d, The Salmo trutta, or sea-trout, universally called 

 " trout" simply by the salesman; od, The Salmo, or true sal- 

 mon.' Then, after a page or two of twaddle about the dentition 

 of the fish, as- forming one of the best guides, in the shape of 

 characteristic marks, to the above-mentioned classification, he 



