Mr. W. Thompson’s Notes on British Char. 445 
Char, taken at the same time as those just noticed, were sent 
by Lord Cole to Mr. Yarrell, and in the Supplement to this 
author’s ‘ History of British Fishes’ (p. 27) are noticed as 
identical with the Welsh species. 
London, May 1840.—During the latter half of this month 
I had the opportunity of seeing quantities of Char from 
Windermere exposed for sale at Mr. Groves’s, the well-known 
fishmonger in Bond Street. On examination they differed 
much from each other in size of fins: their colour was pre- 
cisely that of the Lough Melvin fish ; and, like it too, the flesh 
of specimens I bought in the last week of the month was pale- 
coloured and soft—they were now in such bad condition that 
Mr. Groves ceased to purchase them *. 
So far, the examples of Char treated of were examined when 
fresh. The following, after being preserved in spirits or in a 
dry state, have been received from the under-mentioned Scot- 
tish lakes : 
~ L. Incu—which is one of the localities for Char noticed 
by Pennant. Hence two fine specimens, about 14 inches in 
length, were kindly sent me, in May 1837, by Professor Allen 
Thomson of Aberdeen. ‘They would be called the “ Northern 
Char.” The stomach of one of these was crammed with food, 
consisting of insect larvee, entomostracous crustacea, a small 
Notonecta or Boat-fly, bivalve shells ot the genus Pisidium, and 
minute gravel. Its czeca were 38 in number. 
-L. Corr and L. Kinuin, InvERNEss-sHIRE. From these 
lakes examples of Char were brought me by my relative Ro- 
bert Langtry, Esq., of Fortwilliam, near Belfast, on his re- 
turn from Aberarder, after the sporting season of 1838. The 
Loch Corr specimen—a “Northern Char”—is in beauty of 
colour, and elegance combined with strength of form, the 
finest example I have seen; it is of a fine deep gray on the 
upper parts, becoming lighter towards and below the lateral 
line, about which it is adorned with white spots ; on the lower 
portion of the sides it is silvery, and beneath of the most bril- 
liant red. This specimen is 16 inches in length, and, with an- 
other of similar size, was taken by my friend when angling 
with an artificial fly, on the 25th of September. The other, 
which was eaten, was excellent and high-flavoured, the flesh 
* When at the inn at Waterhead, at the northern extremity of Coniston 
Water, during a tour to the English lakes in June 1835, a number of Char 
from this lake were kept alive by our host in a capacious wooden box or 
trough, into which a constant stream of water poured. They were fine ex- 
amples of the species, about a foot in length. Here I was informed that a 
supply of this delicate fish was always kept up, that the “curious” visitor 
might gratify his taste at any season by having fresh Char set before him 
at the rate of ten shillings for the dozen of fish. 
