1 8 THE HABITS AND HAUNTS OF FISH. 



digious size, five and six pounds being not altogether 

 uncommon. But although a trout may reach this 

 weight, he does not long retain it, for within a 

 comparatively brief period all the store fish within 

 a hundred yards of his haunt will have disappeared, 

 and the cannibal who has thus depopulated it will 

 diminish quickly in flesh, showing a gaunt head and 

 rakish-looking frame as the result of the scarcity of 

 food ; for, strange as it may appear, the veteran trout 

 seldom forsakes his chosen haunt, even to appease 

 hunger's keen pangs. Fish of this description should 

 be destroyed. At twilight they will frequently come 

 boldly at the minnow. At mid-day it is of little use 

 angling for them, as the tackle must then necessarily 

 be fine to get them to face it, and when this is the case 

 it is unequal to the task of holding them when hooked. 

 In large rivers the existence of hybrids in certain 

 of the first sub-genus group of salmonidce is by no 

 means infrequent, the non-migratory fish interbreed- 

 ing with the migratory, producing tidal or slod trout, 

 and other varieties, which occasionally attain consider- 

 able dimensions. The common trout in certain waters 

 sometimes attains a large size, notably in the Irish 

 lochs, those of Loch Neagh frequently scaling 18 to 

 20 Ibs. Thames fish are occasionally taken weighing 

 in the teens of pounds, but such captures are few, 

 and we regret to have to add, are becoming yearly 

 more infrequent, notwithstandiug the instalments 

 from High Wycombe and other sources. Kingston, 

 Shepperton, and Chertsey were years ago the best 

 localities for these fish, and, therefore, the chief 



