THE TKOUT. 137 



angling point of view lie can say, " I have not lived in 

 vain ! " 



You may catch the smaller Thames trout and those 

 which have been imported into the river with the artificial 

 fly, but seldom a large Thames trout. These are, how- 

 ever, occasionally taken with red palmers, May flies, and 

 early in the season with the large stone fly. Grilse 

 and even Salmon flies have sometimes been used with 

 success. But your Thames trout proper is not much of a 

 fly-eater. His favourite food is " small fry," of which 

 he gets abundance and on which he gets fat. 



And now back again to the Common Brown Trout. 

 And whence the name " Trout " ? The word has always 

 sounded to me as a " full round " word; suggestive of a 

 good sound fish; but this must be mere fancy. Izaak 

 Walton remarks that Gesner says it is " of a German 

 Offspring." What German word 3 however, it can be con- 

 nected with I do not know. The ordinary German for 

 " trout " is " forelle." 



The distinguishing letters of our word are evidently tru, 

 as seen in the Anglo-Saxon truht; and these are found in 

 several languages, e.g. in the French truite, the Italian 

 trota and Spanish trucha. The late Latin word is trutta, 

 from the older word tructa, a glutton, which is the Greek 

 troctes (TpdoKTrjs:), "a glutton," and also " a sea fish with 

 sharp teeth," mentioned by iElian. And thus we get 

 our word " trout," originally from the Greek trogo (rpar/co) > 

 to " gnaw " or " eat." So after all the pretty-sounding 

 word " trout " really means something equivalent to a 

 " greedy devourer ; " and taking all things into considera- 

 tion, this is no great libel on our fario. 



My little book, as I have said in the preface, is not an 



