FISHES AND FISHING. 43 



with wonderful swiftness, and surmount almost all 

 obstacles with the greatest ease, by their superior 

 strength and agility ; they come into the fresh water 

 early in August to spawn, that they are seldom taken, 

 and are therefore known to very few persons ; they 

 have never been caught with any bait. He thinks 

 it is the same fish that is* known in some parts of 

 Scotland by the name of the ^^ grey lord'* This ap- 

 pears to be a valuable species of fish, but it is to be 

 feared is now extinct. In the Volga are large quan- 

 tities of what are denominated white salmon; probably 

 these may be the fish called by Willoughby " salmo 

 griscuSf or the grey." 



The analogy between salmon and birds will, after 

 reading the evidence of Dr. Fleming, Messrs. Little 

 and HaUiday, be very striking. Birds pair, make 

 nests for their progeny, and deposit their eggs as much 

 out of sight as possible ; salmon make furrows, and 

 conceal their ova. It appears that one species of fish 

 make nests, and it may be that others do so whose 

 habits are not yet discovered ;* but, for want of more 

 acquaintance with the habits of fish, at present we 

 can go little farther with the analogy. 



It had long been believed that female fish shed 



* In an early volume of the Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal, there is a curious account of the nests made by the 

 Gasterosthus SpinU'tria of Linnaeus (a peculiar species of 

 stickleback). 



