116 NATURAL HISTORY. 



The SALMON TROUT (Salmo trutta) has the gill-cover, or operculum, intermediate in form between 

 that of the Salmon and the Grey Trout. The teeth are more numerous and more slender than in either 

 of these fishes; those on the vomer extend almost throughout its length ; the tail is relatively smaller and 

 shorter than in the Salmon. The body is rather deep in proportion to its length ; the scales are a longer 

 oval than those of the Salmon ; there are twenty-nine above the lateral line and twenty-two below it. 

 Compared with those of the Salmon, the fins are of lighter colour and the body darker. The spots are 

 somewhat cross-shaped and chiefly above the lateral line. The cheeks and gill-covers are silver-white, 

 and the pectoral fin is bluish-white. This species especially abounds in Scotland, and is valued as 

 inferior only to the Salmon. It is caught in Ireland, Wales, the Severn, and the South, West, and 

 North of England. Sir William Jardine mentions that this species enters every river and rivulet 

 along the Scottish coast in immense numbers, feeding on flies, beetles, and other insects, especially the 

 sand-hoppei-. Two hundred are frequently taken at a single draught of a sweep net. Lord Home 

 states that he never saw one in the Tweed weighing more than seven pounds. 



The COMMON TROUT (Salmo fario) is found in most of the rivers and lakes of Great Britain. 

 In battle a Trout vanquishes a Pike, and the fish is especially remarkable for caution, 

 vigilance, and valour. The Trout usually spawns in the month of October. The eggs 

 and milt appear to retain their vitality after the fishes are dead, for the ova have been 

 fecundated artificially when the fishes have been dead for three days. The usual number 

 of vertebrae in the Common Trout is fifty-six. The largest caught in the Tweed by Lord Home 

 weighed five pounds, but in the Leet specimens were killed weighing seven pounds. He remarks that 

 the nature of the soil through which the stream flows exercises considerable influence on the colour, 

 size, and quality of the fish. In the rivers Eden and Leet the bodies are marked with bright red spots, 

 fins and sides orange-coloured, the flesh a deeper red than that of the Salmon, and is almost as full 

 flavoured. The food of these fish consists of small molluscs, caddis-flies, and other flies abounding 

 where the banks of rivers are calcareous. They feed towards evening. The spots and colours are 

 generally most brilliant where the bottom is gravelly. The fish is finest in flavour from the end of 

 May to the end of September. In the second year the Trout are said to associate with the Minnows, 

 and in the third year, when they appear in the shallows, are about seven or eight inches long. When 

 well fed, they increase from one to ten pounds in four years. A Trout was taken from a branch of 

 the Avon at Salisbury which weighed twenty-five pounds. Trout have often been kept alive for long 

 periods in wells, and at Broughton-in-Furness one is recorded to have lived in a well for fifty-three 

 years. It occurs in several of the Irish loughs, where the bottom is more or less rocky, and it is said 

 to have been caught in Lough Neagh forty inches long, and weighing thirty pounds. This species 

 presents two well-marked varieties, one found in Scandinavia, Iceland, and Scotland, and the other in 

 England, France, Central Europe, Russia, and the Maritime Alps. 



The GREAT LAKE TROUT (Salmo ferox) is found in most of the larger and deeper lochs of Scotland 

 and Ireland. It seldom, ventures up or down streams, and never descends to the sea. It feeds almost 

 entirely on smaller fishes, and is generally taken on trolling linos baited with a small Trout. The 

 flavour is coarse, and the flesh has an orange-yellow colour. Fine specimens from Ulle.swater are said to 

 weigh between fifty anl sixty pounds. When full grown and in season it is purplish-brown above, 

 changing through reddish-grey into orange-yellow on th'3 breast and belly. When newly caught, the 

 fish appears as though glazed over with a tint of lake colour, which disappears as it dies. The gill- 

 covers are marked with large dark spots, and the body is covered with markings ; the fins and 

 lower part of the body have a rich yellowish-green colour, which becomes darker towards the ends; the 

 tail is more than usually broad and powerful. The scales arc more circular than those of the migra- 

 tory species of Trout. This species is met with in the great lakes of Scandinavia. There is one ray 

 less in the dorsal fin than in that of the Common Trout. 



The most southern Trout of the whole world is the Salmo macrostigma, from Algeria, which 

 reaches a length of six or seven inches. It is covered with 122 tran verse series of scales. Trout occur 

 in Spain, but the species have not been accurately determined. There are two or three species in the 

 rivers of Dalmatia. The Great Dalmatian Trout (Salmo dentsx) reaches a length of forty-four inches. 

 The Salmo obtusirostris, rarely more than a foot long, is also found in the Tiber. The Lake of Garda 

 contains the Salmo carpio ; the Lake of Geneva the Salmo lemanus, and this species is also 



