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APPENDIX. 



ACCLIMATISED EXOTIC FISH. 



About twelve varieties of exotic fish have been intro- 

 duced into this country either as stock fish for our ponds and 

 rivers, or as interesting or ornamental forms for exhibition in 

 aquaria. Among the first-named category must be men- 

 tioned the American Char or Brook Trout (Salmo fonti- 

 nalis), which, as mentioned in a previous page, has so thriven 

 and increased in this country as to now claim a place among 

 our indigenous species, while many interesting hybrids 

 have been obtained between this type and the English 

 River Trout (Salmo far io). Another freshwater American 

 species, originally imported into England by the Marquis of 

 Exeter, and which has bred on his estate at Romford, is the 

 Black Bass (Grystes nigricans). In its native waters it attains 

 to a weight of six or eight pounds, and is much esteemed 

 both for the table and as a fish affording excellent sport. 

 Some young examples of this species, whose shape and 

 colour in this immature condition are not unlike those of 

 certain varieties of the Ballan Wrass (Labrus maculatus), 

 will be found in one of the tanks in the Buckland Museum. 

 Of European freshwater fish, the Pike-Perch, or Zander 

 (Perca luciopercd), having the proportions of a Pike with the 

 sharp-spined fins and markings of a Perch, has been suc- 

 cessfully acclimatised by his Grace the Duke of Bedford, 

 and living examples have been some years on view in the 

 Brighton Aquarium. The Sheet-fish or Wels (Silurus 

 glanis\ inhabiting the European rivers east of the Rhine, is 



