204 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



portion of a brook under the roots of an alder tree. In Herefordshire there is a 

 country proverb respecting the " aul " or " alder :" 



" When the bud of the aul is as big as a trout's eye, 

 Then that fish is in season, in the river Wye." 



Back (Northumberland), also raclc-rider, a small trout : Shot (Westmorland). 

 Breac-precht, Highlands of Scotland. Alevin fry still retaining its yelk sac and 

 before it commences to feed by the mouth. Sceota, Anglo-Saxon, a "shooter " or 

 " darter :" also iruM. Triotht is an old mode of spelling the name of this fish. 



Habits. — Bold, voracious, cunning and shy, they possess keen sight, and 

 appear to be suspicious of anything novel they may observe. In some of our 

 streams which are constantly fished they have become almost insensible to the 

 charms of the artificial fly, while, if they have once been hooked, they would often 

 seem to remember the circumstance. Should an outlying fish be disturbed it 

 dashes away, and this flight warns and alarms its neighbours. Although they 

 evidently like rapid streams, the largest fish are often taken in sluggish spots, 

 where they mostly move about in search of food of an evening and during the 

 night-time, swimming low, especially in cold weather. A favourite haunt or 

 place of rest is often behind a stone or bank, or heavy weeds or a root, and they 

 appear to prefer a bank or bush which gives shade from overhead. Sometimes 

 trout are so hungry that they appear to take almost anything : thunderstorms or 

 darkness may cause them to cease from feeding, but on cool days it may have the 

 reverse elTect.* A correspondent of The Zoologist (1847, p. 2030) remarked upon 

 a trout kept in confinement, and on a minnow being thrown in it would 

 immediately ascend nearly to the surface, hover over its prey like a hawk for a few 

 seconds, then dash down and seize it by the head. They require moderately pure 

 water, for a carp will live where a trout will die. They are alarmed by shadows 

 falling over their haunts, and the presence of pike, which take a heavy toll from 

 these fish, in the waters in some localities prevents their feeding freely, causing 

 their condition to be poor and the sport they afford to be small. It used to be 

 said that chub drive out trout during the four hot months. 



If some trout prefer food which causes their flesh to be tinged with red,f 



* Mr. Findlay Purdom, Land and Water, August 7th, 1886, observed, " I notice in your last 

 issue, in an article entitled ' At the Bumside in the Lammermoors,' that the two gentlemen 

 mentioned therein gave up fishing, as there was thunder in the air, and one remarked that trout 

 would not look at a hook under such circumstances. I have seen this opinion expressed several 

 times, but from experience have found it incorrect. On one occasion a brother and myself were 

 caught in u, severe thunderstorm whilst starting to fish in the Ale, in Selkirkshire. When the 

 rain had ceased we began, and the trout took splendidly, though it thundered loudly all afternoon. 

 We got over six dozen, the biggest catch we ever had in that river. The second biggest basket 

 there was also made during a bad thunderstorm, and one big trout was missed, whilst we were 

 sheltering under a bridge till the worst was over. The bait in both cases was worm. Several 

 other instances of good takes during thunder have also come under my notice, but would take too 

 much space to detail here. I would like to know if any of your readers have had similar 

 experiences." 



•f Mr. J. Harvie-Brown, in Land and Water, 1881, observed that "Trout abound in nearly all 

 the mnnmerable lochs of North Uist. In those near the sea on the west coast of North Uist they 

 are usually of a good size, often running to f lb. and larger ; but on the moor lochs, with few 

 exceptions, they are much smaller. Into many of the lochs the sea enters regularly at high tide, 

 or occasionally at spring tides, and the water is consequently brackish, or very slightly mixed with 

 salt water. At the time of the inflowing tide brown trout are often killed in the strong streamway 

 amongst almost perfectly pure salt water — the fresher water being, however, nearest the surface. 

 Often at the same place, and sometimes at the same cast, a trout and a lythe may be caught. 

 This brackish water does not appear to affect the growth or condition of these brown trout; 

 indeed, they are usually larger and of finer quality than those obtained in the inland lochs, which 

 have only occasional communication with the sea at spring-tides, or are completely shut off from 

 the sea. 



" In Loch Hosta, which is now quite fresh, the trout are very silvery, like Lochleven trout, but 

 of a different build, being shorter and thicker. But another loch between Trumisgeary and 

 Scolpig contains much more silvery specimens, though it has had longer separation from the sea. 

 It is called Loch Beck. Most of these lochs where the very silvery trout occur are sandy- 

 bottomed, and not rocky, which, no doubt, partly accounts for the silvery colour. In the same 

 way, at a far inland locality in Sntherlandshire, burn trout, dark and spotted, which were caught 



