294. THE FRESH- WATER FISHES OF EUROl'E. 



to Blanchard, is forty to seventy days. A temperature of 50 Q Fahr. is 

 favourable to the growth of the young- fish. Many individuals are sterile. 

 The Trout is everywhere one of the most valued fishes, the flesh being easily 

 digested. It is in the best condition from May till the end of September. 



In England it is now reared artificially for stocking rivers, and widely dis- 

 tributed ; but the quality of the flesh varies with the stream in which it may be 

 placed. Trout-fishing has votaries wherever there are Trout streams ; but when 

 taken with the rod the bait varies with the month and time of the day, for 

 the angler needs to be a practical entomologist, and to study the habits of the 

 flies on Avhich the Trout feeds, if they are to be taken with artificial insects. Their 

 feeding-time is usually in the morning and evening, and they are commonly 

 taken where tributaries join a river or lake. The Trout admits of very much 

 more cultivation than it has hitherto received, and may be raised with profit 

 wherever a stream runs through ponds with a sandy or gravelly bottom. 



The weight augments rapidly where the food is abundant. 



One form of disease to which Trout are liable, the nature of which is 

 unknown, is characterised by an increase in the size of the head arid a 

 wasting of the body. Such a fish is known in Austria as an Adventurer, or 

 Quixote. 



Dr. Giinther counts fifty-seven or fifty-eight vertebrae, of which twenty- 

 three are in the thoracic region, and the remainder in the tail. The last six, 

 as in all species of the genus, enter into the fan of the tail. There are thirty 

 feeble ribs, and accessory ribs are developed, as in the rest of the Salmon 

 tribe. The stomach is distinct from the intestine ; there are thirty-eight to 

 fifty-one pyloric appendages. The intestine makes two curves. The liver is 

 not lobed ; there is a large gall-bladder. The air-bladder extends down the 

 entire length of the ventral cavity. 



Salmo gallivensis(GiJNTHER). The Galway Sea Trout. 



D. 13, A. 1112, P. 15, V. 9. Scales : lat. line 125, transverse 2538. 



Dr. Giinther has given names to, and described, a number of British Trout 

 which his predecessors regarded as varieties either of the Sea or the River Trout. 

 Without considering these interesting local forms as species in the ordinary 

 sense of the term, they may be accepted as convenient names for modifications 

 which would have been regarded as species if the chain of intermediate 

 variation had been less closely linked. One of these is the Galway Sea Trout, 

 a migratory species, well characterised by its pointed, though not elongated 

 snout, broad convex forehead, small eye, feeble teeth, slender jaws, and 



