CLASSIFICATION OF THE BALMOXIDJE. 5 



iinny tribe, for which he angles. The naturalist, it is true, is 

 bound, as a naturalist, to take note only of the fully- developed 

 adult individual ;* this he carefully examines and describes, 

 recording its characteristic features in the great Book of Nature 

 the sy sterna natures, in fact, of his adoption, whether that 

 system be a modified one, dressed up by himself, or a ready-made 

 one, the production of a master-mind; a Linne, a Buifon, a 

 Cuvier, a De Blainville. But no good observer, not even the 

 angler, will or ought to stop here. He does not always catch 

 the full-grown fish ; many little ones and young ones are taken, 

 differing widely from the full-grown, though of the same kind, 

 not yet individualized, and therefore not readily recognisable ; yet 

 he would like to know what they are what they would become. 

 Are they trout, or salmon, or salmon-trout ? and if merely trout, 

 to what species or kind do they belong ? 



It is with the hope of assisting the angler, and the curious 

 observer of Nature's works, that I here offer him the following 

 brief sketch of some of the results of countless angling excur- 

 sions, reserving for other sections of this little book a more 

 minute account of what the angler may meet with in Scotland. 



In the rivers and lakes of Scotland, in so far as I have fished 

 them, there are three distinct natural families of salmones, form- 

 ing the genera of naturalists ; to each of these belong several 

 species absolutely distinct, whatever my esteemed friend, M. 

 Valenciennes, may say to the contrary. 



Of the genera, or natural families, there is 1st, the Salmo 

 Salar, or Trout ; some call this the Fario. I recommend the 

 angler to eschew all pedantry. 



2nd. The Salmo Trutta, or Sea Trout, universally called 

 " Trout" simply, by the salesman. 



3rd. The Salmo, or true Salmon. 



These three natural families have many characteristic differ- 

 ences, which, when present, will enable the observer always to 

 distinguish them from each other, even although the external 

 robe, with its various spots and colouring were either acci- 

 dentally destroyed, or altered by disease, or deeply affected, 



Valenciennes. 



