MR. E. DAT ON THE LOCH-LEYEN TROUT. 
71 
On the Loch-Leven Trout ( Salmo levenensis) . 
By Francis Day, C.I.E., F.L.S. 
[Eeacl 2nd December, 1886.] 
Salmo leyenensis, Walker. 
Salmo levenensis, Walker , Wernerian Memoirs , i. p. 541 (1808), 
aputl Neill ; Walker , Posthumous Essays on Natural History 
(1812) ; Farrell, Brit. Fishes, (ed. 2) ii. p. 117, (ed. 3) i. p. 257 ; 
Gunther, Catal. of Fishes, vi. p. 101 ; Couch, Fishes Brit. Isles, iv. 
p. 243, pi. cexx. ; Houghton, Brit. Freshwater Fishes, p. 123, c. fig. ; 
Bay, British and Irish Fishes, ii. p. 92, pi. cxvi. figs. 2 & 2 a. 
Salmo taurinus, or Locli-Leven Bull-Trout, Walker, Essays, l.c. 
(large examples). 
Locli-Leven Trout, Bichardson , Fauna Bor .-Americana, 1836, 
p. 143 ; Knox, Proceedings Linnean Society, \ ol. ii. p. 354, Dec. 1854. 
Salmo caecifer, Parnell, Fishes of the Firth of Forth, p. 306, 
pi. xxx., and Wern. Mem. vii. p. 146, pi. xxx. 
Among the general public, anglers, and fishermen it has, from 
almost time immemorial, been a subject of argument as to 
whether the Locli-Leven trout should be considered a species 
distinct from the burn-trout ( Salmo fario) ; and also, supposing 
it to be a distinct species, whether it may not be the descendant 
of a marine form which, having ascended the river Leven and 
obtained access into the loch from the sea, has been unable to 
return there. Scientific men have joined in this discussion and 
given or refused specific rank to the Locli-Leven trout ; in the 
meantime, the form in question has been selected as the stock- 
fish for the justly celebrated Howietoun fish-farm of Sir James 
Maitland, which is within 25 miles of Loch Leven and at about 
the same elevation above the sea, and here facilities have existed 
for studying the race more closely, perhaps, than any other of 
our British trout. 
In Sir Eobert Sibbald’s history of Kinross-shire, 1710, we 
read : — “Loch Leven abounds with fine fish, such as the salmonds*, 
* The term salmoncl was used so vaguely by some authors as applicable to 
both the salmon and sea-trout, that the simple name being given is hardly 
sufficient evidence of the presence of Salmo solar. Thus Sir R. Sibbald, in his 
‘ Scotia Illustrata,’ 1684, divided salmon from salmoneta, and referred to the 
latter as follows: — Salmoneta, qui nostratibus the Salmon-trout ” (p. 25). 
He also observed, “ The Grey trout, or Bill-trout, some of them as large as a 
salmond”; but, as I shall show, this grey stage is not the livery of old speci- 
mens, and none have been recorded over 10 lb. in weight, it would therefore 
seem he referred to sea-trout ; again, silvery trout in Scotch lochs are often 
classed as sea-trout. 
