158 AN ANGLER'S YEAR 



swifter runs preferred by trout. Its anatomy will 

 demonstrate this better than any description can. The 

 large easily-raised back fin and the capacious swim- 

 bladder, dilatable by the raising of the fin, together with 

 the oval upward-glancing eye shows a power of suddenly 

 rising to the surface which is not possessed by trout. 

 Hence the difference in the habits of the two fish : the 

 trout, if in deep water, seems to hover near the surface 

 when feeding and rises but slightly as the fly passes 

 over him ; the grayling, on the other hand, hugs the 

 bottom and comes up at the fly with a turning-over 

 motion, not dropping back as the trout does but making 

 what is known as a " head and tail " rise. The late Dr. 

 John Brunton had this well illustrated in a case contain- 

 ing a trout and a grayling, each hooked and returning 

 after taking the fly. Dr. Brunton, by-the-bye, always 

 spelt the name of this fish as " Greyling," and defended 

 his spelling on the score that " grey " not " gray " was 

 the correct spelling of the root-word. The habit of living 

 in deeper water accounts for the fact that grayling are 

 found more frequently than trout in the middle of the 

 stream. Grayling also exhibit another peculiarity over 

 trout which may be accounted for in the same manner. 

 A fish rising at a fly will frequently miss it, but will come 

 again and again, and may at last be hooked ; whereas a 

 trout under similar circumstances usually only makes 

 one or, at most, two offers. 



The most feasible explanation of this fact is that the 

 trout, when he misses the fly, means to miss it, having 

 discovered the deception ; whereas the grayling, rising 

 from a depth, miscalculates his shot and misses the fly 

 by mistake, and goes on rising even more eagerly until 

 he gets it. This explanation is also borne out by the 

 fact that these fish are not so particular as trout as to 

 the pattern of the fly, and evidently prefer bright and 

 gaudy patterns. 



There is little doubt that the grayling is much more a 

 bottom-feeder than the trout, although, in my opinion, 

 not usually a fish eater, despite the opinions of Messrs. 

 Pritt, Walbran, Seeley, and others. After spawning, 



