278 DELIBERATE INTRODUCTION OF NEW ANIMALS 



less need for so tedious an enumeration, since the citation 

 of the Clyde area alone sufficiently indicates to what extent 

 man may encourage an alien fauna to replace that of nature's 

 assembling. Introductions of the true Rainbow Trout (Salmo 

 irideus) of California have been made on several occasions 

 and in several places, as in Loch Uisg and the Lochbuie 

 lochs of Mull. In 1898 over a thousand " Rainbow Trout " 

 were set free in the river Buchat, a tributary of the Don in 

 Aberdeenshire 1 . 



TRANSPORTATIONS 



Apart from the deliberate introduction of new creatures 

 from a strange land, there is a minor form of introduction, 

 which, while it involves no fresh addition to the fauna as a 

 whole, has yet some influence upon the numbers and distri- 

 bution of its members I mean the transference of an animal 

 from an old to a new area. There would seem to be little 

 scope for such transportations in a country so small as 

 Scotland, yet many have taken place, and as they relate in 

 the main to sporting animals, a few typical illustrations may 

 be given here. Perhaps the most noted of all such trans- 

 portations concern the short-headed Trout of Loch Leven 

 (Salmo levenensis\ famed for the red colour of its flesh and 

 its peculiar delicacy of flavour. There is scarcely a Scottish 

 lake or slow-flowing river much frequented by anglers, but 

 there Loch Leven Trout have been released, as many as 

 150,000 fry having been set free in one lake, Loch Awe, 

 in the course of the three years preceding 1890. England, 

 too, has shared in the spoil, and amazing success has 

 followed the introduction of Loch Leven Trout to the still 

 and running waters of New Zealand. The enthusiasm of 

 anglers, again, has stocked with the common Brown Trout 

 of the brook (Salmo truttd], many a Highland loch or lochan, 

 which till that time knew no fish except perhaps the migra- 

 tory Eel, whose elvers take to land when they encounter a 

 waterfall such as would completely check the passage of 

 Trout or Salmon. Trout from below the great Smoo Cave, 

 near Durness, were placed many years ago in the river above 

 the Cave and beyond the impassable cascade which bursts 

 through its roof, and, isolated in their new habitation, they 



1 I suspect that these "Rainbow Trout," recorded by Mr G. Sim, may 

 have belonged to the species referred to above the American Brook Trout. 



