FISHES 



It has been the boast of Worcestershire that all the different kinds 

 of EngUsh freshwater fish are to be found in one or other of the rivers in 

 the county. There is more truth in this than in most of such generali- 

 zations, as the county is situate in the Severn and Trent watersheds. 

 With one or two exceptions nearly all the different species of freshwater 

 fish occur in the Severn and its tributaries, even if not in its Worcester- 

 shire tributaries ; so it is possible, but most improbable, from their present 

 condition that such of the English freshwater fish that are not found in 

 the Severn watershed may be found in the Worcestershire streams that 

 are the upper waters of some of the tributaries of the Trent. 



Broadly speaking, for the purpose of the distribution of freshwater 

 fish in England and Wales, a Hne representing the oolitic rocks running 

 from Portland to the Humber divides the country into salmon rivers and 

 coarse fish rivers ; all east of the line being coarse fish, west of it salmon. 

 It is not to be understood that no salmon are found to the east of the 

 line, or coarse fish to the west, but that the eastern rivers are those suited 

 for coarse fish, and were probably the original home of those fish, while 

 the western rivers were the original home of the Salmonidce, and salmon 

 east of the line are mere survivals of a past state of things, while coarse 

 fish west of the line are immigrants. One of the interesting points as to 

 Worcestershire fish is the probability that originally there were no coarse 

 fish in its rivers, but that through its tributary the Avon the immigration 

 of coarse fish began. The date of this immigration it is perhaps im- 

 possible to fix, but it was no doubt aided and increased by the canals 

 made during the last half of the eighteenth and the first quarter of the 

 nineteenth centuries. In considering the Worcestershire fish the two divi- 

 sions must be borne in mind, the original inhabitants and the immigrants, 

 and these are broadly represented by the Salmonidee and the Cyprinidce. 



Another great division of the Worcestershire fish, that is the Severn 

 fish, is with regard to the place of breeding ; several of the more important 

 kinds are what are known as anadromous fish, that is they go up the rivers 

 to spawn. These include the salmon {Salmo salar), the different forms of 

 trout (S. trutta), the two species of shad, the allice {Clupea alosd) and the 

 twaite {C. fintd) ; and the two species of lamprey, the great sea lamprey 

 [Petromyzon marinus) and the lampern (P. jiuviatilus) . The catadromous 

 fish, those that descend from the rivers to breed in the sea, are represented 

 only by the eel {Anguilla vulgaris), for although certain other forms drop 

 down the rivers at different times of the year they do not appear to do 

 so for breeding. 



In order to keep up the stock of these two great divisions, the 

 anadromous and catadromous, one thing is necessary : that their passage up 



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