]f>4 MALACOPTEKYGII. 



1837, by Professor Allen Thomson of Aberdeen. Tliey would be called the 

 ' Northern Char.' The stomach of one of these was crammed with food, con- 

 sisting of insect larvae, entomostracous Crustacea, a small Notonecta, or Boat-fly, 

 bivalve shells of the genus Pisidlum, and minute gravel. Its caeca were 38 in 

 number. 



" L. CoRR and L. Killin, Inverness-shire. From these lakes examples of 

 char were brought me by my relative Robert Langtry, Esq., of Fortwilliam, 

 near Belfast, on his return from Aberarder, after the sporting season of 1838. 

 The Loch Corr specimen — a ' Northern Char ' — is in beauty of colour, and 

 elegance combined with strength of form, the finest example I have seen ; it is 

 of a fine deep gray on the upper parts, becoming lighter towards and below the 

 lateral line, about which it is adorned with white spots ; on the lower portion 

 of the sides it is silvery, and beneath of the most brilliant red. This specimen 

 is 16 inches in length, and, with another of similar size, was taken by my friend 

 when angling with an artificial fly, on the '25th of September. The other, which 

 was eaten, was excellent and high-flavoured, the flesh firm and red. Loch Corr 

 is described to me as a deep mountain-lake or basin, less than a mile in length, 

 with rocks rising precipitously above it at one part ; at another it is shallow and 

 sandy, and here this fish is taken in some quantity when spawning. A beauti- 

 fully clear river issues from the lake. About fifteen miles from Loch Corr is 

 Loch Killin, situated in the pastoral vale of Stratherrick. Three specimens of 

 char have thence been brought me. They are remarkably different from the L. 

 Corr example, are of a clumsy form, have very large fins like the Welsh fish, 

 and are very dull in colour — of a blackish leaden hue throughout the greater 

 part of the sides, the lower portion of which is of a dull yellow; no red appear- 

 ing anywhere. So different, indeed, is this fish from the char of the neighbour- 

 ing localities, that it is believed by the people resident about Loch Killin to be a 

 species peculiar to their lake, and hence bears another name — 'Haddy' being 

 strangely enough the one bestowed upon it. This fish is only taken when spawn- 

 ing, but then in great quantities, either with nets, or a number of fish-hooks tied 

 together with their points directed different ways. These, unbaited, are dravsTi 

 through the water where the fish are congregated in such numbers that they are 

 brought up impaled on the hooks. The largest of my specimens is 16 inches in 

 length, and others of similar size were brought to my friend at the same time — 

 on the 26th or 27th September, when about a 'cart-load' of them was taken. 

 The flesh of some was ' white and soft. They contained ova the size of peas.' * 

 On dissection my specimens were found to be male and female ; externally the 

 sex could not have been told with certainty. Their stomachs and intestines 

 were empty. This fish bears a resemblance to the Lough Melvin char, but 

 differs from it in some characters. It will have been remarked that, in accord- 

 ance with the Irish fish, the sexes present little difference externally either in 

 form or colour, that their flesh is soft and insipid and very pale, and that neither 

 is designated Char. The remarks of Lord Cole on the L. Melvin fish, and of Mr. 

 Langtry on the L. Killin one, were in every respect similar. To the latter gen- 

 tleman the dozen of L. Melvin fish were shown the day they were received, and 

 in colour, &c., they were pronounced just the same in appearance as the L. 

 Killin fish in an equally fresh state. 



" In the following instances the Char of Ireland have been noticed : — In 

 Camden's Britannia it is remarked — 'Lough Esk, near Townavilly [Co. Done- 

 gal], yields the char in great abundance: a most delicate fish, generally about 

 9 inches long.' (Gough's ed. vol. iii. p. 644.) I have seen a specimen from 

 this locality in Mr. Yarrell's collection ; it was supplied to him by Lord Cole, 

 and is noticed in the Supplement to his British Fishes (p. 27) as S. Umbla. 

 Smith, in his History of Waterford, p. 208, observes — 'In these mountains 

 [Cummeragh] are four considerable loughs, two of which are called by the Irish 



* At this very time, the char from the neighbouring Loch Corr were in high 

 condition. This is one out of numerous instances which might be adduced re- 

 specting the different period of spawning in contiguous localities. 



