NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SALMONID^. 175 



place in systematic arrangements, has been a matter of doubt and 

 dispute. That his whole bill of fare cannot be correctly filled up 

 is very probable. But sufficient data, I think, exist to make out a 

 tolerable carte of his favourite dishes. Oh ! those words of learned 

 sound, and little meaning, that must be used to describe this food 

 in the jargon of science, make one almost shudder. That he is, 

 then, insectivorous^ vermivorous, molliiscivoroiis, piscivorous^ and 

 probably herbivorous^ is all but certain. I have taken him with at 

 least twenty different kinds of lake flies. I have seen him in his 

 junior state, dragged up like a malefactor amongst slimy eels on a 

 night line baited with worms. He has risen to my hook baited 

 with five species of little fishes — namely, the loach, stickleback, 

 fry of trout, and pike, and the gudgeon. His addiction to these 

 dainties has been proved to me numberless times by a very un- 

 willing visit to my net. 



There is, however, so far as I have been able to observe, one 

 condition necessary to his indulgence in these luxuries. They 

 must be in a comparatively minute form, and presented to him on 

 a Imk of clear, clean gut. As a general rule, the limit of his taste 

 in this respect does not exceed baits of three or perhaps four 

 inches. He must be hard up for a dinner if he goes beyond these 

 dimensions. To be sure it has been stated — what, indeed, of fishes 

 has not ? — that, like the pike, he attacks prey of a considerable 

 size. Possibly this may be so. . . . Yet I have trolled with pike 

 tackle and larger baits, how often I know not ; but never, in any 

 instance, ^xdiferox favour me with a call while engaged in this kind 

 of work. 



Of his feeding on small shells and larvje, which are to be found 

 in large quantities on the bottom of lakes, the evidence, though in- 

 ferential, assumes a look of certainty, on examining the contents of 

 his stomach. The debris of these semi-digested creatures is there 

 to be seen and felt clearly enough. Amongst the mass are traces 

 of apparently green vegetable matter ; but whether these are the 

 remains of a salad of aquatic herbs is problematic. 



Whatever be his food, there is no doubt that the Great Lake 

 trout will attain, under favourable conditions, to a very great 

 size, though I have never happened myself to meet with any 

 remarkably large specimens, either alive or stuffed, nor do I 

 find any such authentically recorded. Stoddart mentions one 



