142 THE STORY OF FISH LIFE. 



the appearance of the fish when on the eve of 

 spawning would come as a surprise. The female 

 is then dark in colour, almost black, and her 

 shape sadly altered for the worse from that 

 which she presented when in condition. As for 

 the male, he is about as hideous as can well be 

 imagined, his general colour being a dirty red, 

 blotched with orange and dark spots. His jaws 

 are elongated, and the lower one furnished with 

 a huge beak, as thick and nearly as long as a 

 man's middle finger; while his teeth are sharp 

 and numerous, and his head, from the shrinking 

 of his shoulders, appears disproportionately 

 large. His skin also is slimy and disagreeable 

 to handle, and, in fact, scarcely a more repulsive 

 creature in appearance exists. . . . After spawn- 

 ing, the fish speedily recover their colour, and, 

 to a great extent, their condition ; the baggit 

 (as the female is called) at once losing her dark 

 complexion, and the kipper discarding his hideous 

 livery, his great beak being rapidly absorbed, his 

 sides becoming silvery, and his back assuming a 

 dark bluish tinge." 



Salmon return year by year to the river in 

 which they were hatched, just as swallows and 

 many other birds return each spring to their 

 own particular nesting-places. At least this is 

 generally the case, but it would seem that some 

 on leaving the river stray so far away that they 

 are unable to find their way back. There seems, 

 however, to be a yet deeper, may we say "in- 

 stinctive," impulse behind these apparent tender 

 associations and regard for the ancestral waters. 

 Since year by year fish hover longingly at the 



