30 MR. F. DAY ON RACES AND [Jan. 1 .'), 



bound, not a few were sterile, while the number of eggs from those 

 ripe for breeding were, fish for fish, less than in 1882. Taking 

 all things into consideration the time appeared to have arrived when 

 the paying value of most of these Trout had come to an end, and it 

 was decided that they could no longer be kept with advantage. The 

 sluice was therefore opened on November 27th, and the next morning 

 we proceeded to the pond to select such fish as were worth preserving 

 and spawn such as proved to be ripe. 



On arriving at the pond the water was found to have nearly run 

 down, and in the mud at the bottom were many dead Trout, not 

 short of 100, the majority of which were about two feet in length, 

 some keits, some egg-bound females, while a few were floundering 

 in the mud. On removing with a net the remaining fish, it was 

 observable that a change in the colour of some had occurred ; and 

 the same change was observed among some of the 1876 Lochleven 

 Trout — namely, that the anal fin had a white edge and the anterior- 

 superior margin of the dorsal fin was also white, thus reverting to 

 the Brook-Trout form of colour. Attention may likewise be drawn 

 to all the hybrids between this form of Trout and the Salmon 

 possessing a white edge to the dorsal and anal fins. Those who 

 consider colour as indicating a specific difference in these fish differ- 

 entiate the Lochleven from the Brook-Trout by the latter possessing 

 a white edge to their fins, which is deficient in the former. These 

 old and undoubted Lochleven fish are throwing back in colour to the 

 Brook-Trout livery ; and likewise among the crosses between this 

 variety and the Salmon we find the white edge to the fins as seen 

 in the Brook-Trout invariably present, although absent from the 

 parents. 



On placing a net in the ditch into which the island-pond drained, 

 a considerable number of Trout-ova were found in it. Whether 

 these were from the bottom of the pond, or W'hether an old female 

 had got jammed in the valve and her eggs discharged, it was not 

 possible to say, but they were white and opaque, as if they had been 

 exuded longer than 12 hours. 



Forty-two large Trout had to be killed as evidently pass^ and 

 about 300 of the remainder were removed to another receptacle. 

 The small amount of fertile males was remarkable ; while all the 

 old ones had the hook at the end of the lower jaw. Among the fish 

 in this pond were some of the hybrids between the Salmon and Trout, 

 bred from ova taken in November 1879, and already adverted to. 



On November 15th, 1882, Sir J. Gibson-Maitland in my presence 

 obtained about 2000 ova from a Lochleven Trout, which were ferti- 

 lized with milt from an American Brook-Trout, or Charr, Salmo 

 fontinnlis. These were placed in hatching-box no. 108, and on 

 November 29th, 1883, about 150 were alive. They had been trans- 

 ferred to a large wooden rearing tank through which a stream of 

 water flowed. The mortality ainong these 2000 eggs had been as 

 follows: — November G8, December 142, January 89, February 41, 

 or a total of 340 eggs. The young were much malformed, monstro- 

 sities being numerous, blindness in both or in a single eye, and bull- 



