THE FRESH-WATER FISHES OF EUROVE. 



and its taste then lies in the direction of univalve mollusca, small worms, young 

 fishes, small fishes like Minnows and Gudgeons, spawn, and larvae of insects. 



When one remembers the great refracting power of water it seems 

 remarkable that the Grayling should often jump out of the water and succeed 

 in catching insects in the air, but the swiftness of their movements has been 

 compared to the passing of a shadow. 



As a rule the fish is solitary, preferring clear shallow streams with pools, 

 having a bottom of sand or gravel. At spawning-time it mates, and they then 

 swim in couples. The pair excavate holes with their tails, in which the female 

 deposits the eggs, which are four millimetres in diameter, and orange-coloured, 

 though Blanchard found them to be white and opalescent in France. As soon 

 as the male has covered them with the milt, they are protected with small 

 stones, and abandoned. The spawning often takes place early in March, but 

 sometimes in April and May; though, according to Canestrini, the species 

 spawns in Upper Italy between January and April ; and Lloyd mentions May or 

 the beginning of June in Scandinavia; the time depending upon temperature, 

 and in Continental waters being governed by the melting of the ice in spring. 

 In spawning thus early it differs from the Salmon. The young brood is usually 

 hatched out in fourteen days, commonly in June ; the process being more 

 rapid than in other members of the Salmon tribe. 



The young grow quickly, and under favourable circumstances may reach 

 a weight of a pound or a pound and a half in two years, when they 

 begin to spawn. Many individuals, according to Von Siebold, are sterile ; such 

 specimens are paler in colour and have smaller fins. On progress to maturity 

 they encounter many dangers, and are by no means tenacious of life. 

 Where Salmon abound they feed on Grayling ; and water birds are discrimi- 

 nating enough to prefer a Grayling, when he can be caught. The fish is not 

 easily naturalised anywhere. Sir Humphry Davy failed in getting it to live 

 in brackish water, and it is only by a system of slow change of the water 

 that they are introduced into ponds in Germany. 



The flesh would seem to have been even more prized in ancient times than 

 now, and numerous laws in the Codex Austriacus testify to the care with 

 which its delicate life was protected by the earlier rulers of Austria. It had 

 a reputation for being easily digested, and its fat, under the name of Oleum 

 wschite, was once much used in medicine for its reputed healing properties. 



Grayling are commonly caught with the net and weir-basket, though taken 

 with the line even when baited with artificial flies. In Upper Austria, Heckel 

 and Kner record the practice of an ingenious if unsportsmanlike mode of 

 fishing, which consists in the application of the decoy such as was formerly in 

 general xise for the capture of birds. At spawning-time a female fish is taken 



