124 SALMON AND TROUT. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH 

 SALMONID^. 



A KNOWLEDGE — even if only a very moderate one — of the 

 natural history and habits of fish is generally admitted to be 

 an important element of success in angling. The history of 

 the salmon and trout species is especially interesting, in some 

 of its aspects even important, as bearing on the national supply 

 of fish food, and I therefore make no apology for prefacing, by 

 a sketch of their habits from the Angler-Naturalist's stand- 

 point, the chapters descriptive of the practical art of catching 

 them. 



In this essay I have adopted the division or grouping of the 

 different species of British Salmonidce in two great classes : the 

 silver, or migratory, and the yellow, or non-migratory ; the first 

 division consisting of those fish which migrate periodically to 

 or from the sea, viz. the true salmon, the bull trout, and the 

 sea trout ; and the second division of those the habits of which; 

 usually or constantly confine them to the fresh water, whether 

 lake or river, viz. the common, or yellow trout, the great lake 

 trout, and the grayling. 



[In this second division must of course also be included the 

 varieties of the charr and of the coregonus, or fresh-water 

 herring ; but the habits and history of the latter are of less 

 mterest to the fisherman than to the ichthyologist, as they are 

 confined to special localities and so far as I am aware never, or 

 'hardly ever,' take either bait or fly.] 



