204 Transactions. — Zoology. * 



be near spawning or milting, it is at once transferred to the tub with a 

 sufficient supply of water. Thus confined the trout shows considerable 

 restlessness at first, but gets soon more reconciled seemingly to its novel 

 habitation, as it becomes more quiescent. But should the fish when taken 

 not be near maturity or ready to propagate, it is returned to the river for a 

 time. Working thus up stream, pool by pool, and stream by stream, so 

 much only of the river is gone over as gives a number of fish sufficient to 

 transport in the tub. When this is attained, Mr. Deans and his man carry 

 the tub and its contents carefully to an enclosed stream ^or small pond, 

 within the gardens. This is called the " hospital " or the " lying-in pond," 

 and there the milters and spawners are kept till ripe or ready for stripping. 

 More than a score of trout, some 10 lbs. to 12 lbs. weight, have thus been 

 caught on a good night, but some nights scarcely a fish can be seen or taken 

 in the Water of Leith. A deep hole with a weir and apron below Anderson's 

 flour mill, is a favourite resort where numbers of large fish congregate. 



As regards the greater ease of taking fish by a lantern or torch at night, 

 than without that and during daylight, it has long been held as an opinion 

 that the fish become so dazzled or dazed by the light as to be incapable of 

 swimming away. From my own observations, however, when assisting in 

 the capture of trout in the Leith, I can only admit that the above opinion 

 is partially correct. The light appears (particularly when a dark-lantern 

 is used) to rivet the attention or eyesight of the fish, to the exclusion of 

 the darker body of the man, so that but for the motion of the light the 

 fish would probably not recognize its danger. But as the light moves, so 

 does the fish, and should the rays fall on part of the man's body or on the 

 net, its motion is quickened, and it makes off. 



The proportion of males are few compared with the number of female fish 

 captured, so far as I have seen. Thus I was present on the 10th of July 

 last at a stripping of trout at the lying-in pond, when only three or four 

 males were got, while there were twenty-four females handled ! So also in 

 angling I always catch far more females than males, as on March 26th, 

 1880, out of thirteen trout I caught in the Deep Stream on that day and the 

 following one, there were not more than two undoubted males. In connec- 

 tion with this I may refer to the fact that some years ago I and others caught 

 male trout in the Lee Stream, which were lean and emaciated and evidently 

 wasting away from some unexplained cause. That cause was certainly not 

 want of power or inclination to feed, as they took the fly or bait greedily. 



The colours of the trout during the spawning season here, are deepened, 

 just as has beeen remarked with the SahnonidcB at home. For example, on 

 the occasion of stripping just mentioned above, I noticed that the males, and 

 more particularly the larger ones, were very dark and golden tinted, the fins, 

 and notably the adipose and caudal, having much deep pink ; while the 



