2 



Mr. Lambert was so good as to send the following ac- 

 count of it : ^^ The Gillaroo Trout which I sent you was 

 caught in the lake Carra, situated in the county of Mayo 

 in the west of Ireland, while I resided at Castle Bourke, 

 situated on the banks of that lake. I had frequent op- 

 portunities of observing this singular fish, and hardly a 

 day passed without my catching some of them with the 

 fly, or having some of them sent me by my tenants. At 

 different times I opened several of their enlarged stomachs, 

 which I always found full of Helix tentaculata. This 

 enlargement of the stomach is no doubt occasioned by 

 this kind of food producing a certain degree of irritation 

 so as to thicken the coats of it. It is certainly not a disease, 

 as the larger the stomach the fatter the fish ; and a Trout 

 about two pounds weight with a stomach the size of a 

 hen's egg, was so fat and oily as scarcely to be eatable. 

 This fish is easily taken with a fly, and I have caught 

 several in a day with much coarser tackle than I could 

 have taken the Trout with in the rivers of England. It 

 is certainly not a distinct species from the common 

 Trout, as some have thought it ; for I have found the 

 stomach in every state of enlargement from the size of 

 a nut to that of a hen's egg; and I have as often caught 

 them in the same lake without the least enlargement of the 

 stomach. The shell on which they feed seems to be very 

 abundant in the lake Carra, as some parts of the shores of it 

 are covered with the half-digested shells voided by this fish. 

 I have been informed that they are sometimes caught in 

 some of the neighbouring lakes.'* 



On examining the stomach of the above specimen I 

 found both Helix tentaculata and Nerila Jiuviatilis ; the 

 first in the greatest abundance, but both with their oper- 

 culums on, and the snail or animal very little altered; a few 

 loose operculums and empty shells were among them : 



