154 MALACOPTERYGII. 



blue, very dark silvery colour on lower half, upper half clouded with brown. 

 This is different from the colour of any eye in the species of this genus 

 that I have remarked, they are generally whitish silvery. It proved a 

 female on inspection, and containing ova (?) of every size, from three lines 

 in diameter downwards to very minute, and these were loose, apparently 

 as if part had been shed. I never before saw this variation in the size of 

 ova in any fish ; the very largest size in this were clear, and all the smaller 

 opaque, of a dull stem-colour, and exhibiting blood-vessels in them. The 

 stomach contained the remains of small Crustacea, an insect larva, &c. 



The Gillaroo Trout. 



The coats of the stomach of other species of Srrlmones than S. Fario (of 

 which on/_i/ the Gillaroo is set down as a variety) become muscular from 

 the same cause. I have seen S. ferox, from different localities, with a 

 muscular stomach, and these examples were called Gillaroo trout, by 

 persons who distinguish them from the ordinary state of the fish, believing 

 them to be a distinct species. 



1838. — Dr. Drummond sent me the contents of the stomach of a trout, 

 about eight inches long, from Lough Neagh. They consisted o{ Lhmieus 

 jiereyer of small size, and Vahata obtiisa, but more of the former ; they 

 also contained a few Ci/clas cornea. I reckoned fifty of these shells, and 

 divided the remainder into parcels of a similar number, and found that 

 the whole amounted to a thousand. 



The stomach of another trout from Lough Neagh, examined by me, 

 was half filled Avith Limneus 2)ere(/er; the other half of the contents com- 

 prised flies and coleoptera, which it must have taken on or above the 

 sui-face ; and of sub-aquatic insects of various kinds. The stomach also 

 contained Gammari. 



The Gillaroo Trout. 



December \st, 1849. W. R. "Wilde, Esq. , tells me that in September last 

 he caught a number of these in Lough Bofin, within four miles of Ough- 

 terard, between that and Clifden. The first which was caught was pointed 

 out to him as a Gillaroo by his boatman, who kncAV it from the markings, 

 without feeling the stomach. He said he recognised it by the " invisible 

 marks " above the ventral profile. These marks Mr. Wilde describes as 

 resembling dirty finger-marks. The boatman examined a number of these 

 trout, and found they were Gillaroos, with hard stomachs and shell-fish 

 in them. All the fish were of a very small size. 



Gillaroo trout are found in the Shannon, in Lough Corrib, and Lough 

 Mask. Newenhams Vieiv of Ireland, 1809. 



Nimmo has taken Gillaroos in the Galway lakes, with shells in them, 

 from April to August. With a fly he has caught those with thick 

 stomachs containing shells. 



Mr. R. M'Garry informs me, that in Lough Neagh it sometimes 

 attains 12 lbs. weight ; he has never seen one under lib; he says it is 

 very partial to flies, with which he has seen the mouths of those taken 

 filled ; he has never known it to be caught Avith any bait excepting the 

 fly, though all the other species of trout are so taken. 



The fishermen distinguish them at every age by form, markings, and by 

 the hardness of the stomach or gizzard as they term it. It is partial to a 

 rocky bottom, takes a worm-bait, but may also be captured with artifi- 

 cial fly. 



