48 SALMONID.E. 



a specimen measuring seven inches in length, having both 

 lobes of roe in a forward state : no such accumulation, I 

 venture to say, will be found in the young of the Salmon, 

 Bull-Trout, or Salmon-Trout, when only seven inches long. 

 The specimen just referred to was taken in the middle of 

 February. Mr. Heysham, among other communications on 

 the subject of fishes, sent me word he had seen a female 

 taken in March, in which the ova were very large : and the 

 Rev. W. F. Cornish, of Totness in Devonshire, on the 

 Dart, where this fish is called the Heppar, preserved a spe- 

 cimen of a female, also taken in March, in which the ova 

 were very large ; much larger, he said, than he could have 

 thought it possible so small a fish could have matured. 

 The three specimens last mentioned might be examples 

 of late breeders, and Dr. Heysham's view of the breeding 

 period is probably the correct one : the Parr being, as that 

 gentleman considered, a migratory species, deposits its spawn 

 in the depth of winter, like the other migratory species of 

 the same genus. 



The Skegger of the Thames is the Parr or Samlet. 

 Laleham, between Staines and Chertsey, where the water 

 is shallow, formerly afforded the greatest quantity ; forty 

 and even fifty dozen have been taken in one day by a skilful 

 fly-fisher ; but the numerous gas and other manufactories 

 on the banks of the river are considered so greatly to have 

 affected the quality of the water, that a Salmon or a Skegger 

 in the Thames is now but rarely seen. It was customary 

 to permit fishing for Skeggers only, before the usual period 

 for angling in the Thames,* from the belief that these fish 

 were migratory and their return uncertain. 



* Angling in the Thames, within the conservancy of the Lord Mayor of 

 London, which extends to Staines Bridge, is prohibited during the months of 

 March, April, and May, under a penalty, and with loss of rod and line. 



