168 NOTES ON FISH AND PISHING. 



" A general tint, which may he called a light blue, silvery gray, per- 

 vades nearly the whole surface of his body, excepting the belly, which 

 is white or nearly so ; hut the scales often exhibit iridescent hues of 

 great beauty. The back and head are of a much darker gray, but its 

 components cannot, perhaps, be described verbally. Some lines of 

 brown are intermixed with the gray of the sides, and a few black spots 

 are seen near the shoulder. The back fin has a purplish tint, studded 

 with large dark spots ; the other fins are not so red as those of the 

 trout, but have more yellow-brown in them shaded off with purple. 

 The tail is a kind of slate colour." 



<i 



If you wish to appreciate the delicate tinting and 

 shot" colouring of a grayling hold him horizontally 

 before you. He is most exquisitely painted, though 

 the colouring is all subdued. 



He is an elegantly-formed fish, though I will not go as 

 far as Mr. Ronalds and say, " more elegantly formed even 

 than the trout." One of the authors just above quoted, 

 comparing the two fish, says, " The trout has, so to speak, 

 a Herculean cast of beauty ; the grayling rather that of 

 Apollo — light, delicate, and gracefully symmetrical," and 

 Mr. Francis says, " If the trout be the gentleman of the 

 streams, the grayling is certainly the lady." This is not 

 bad ; but though the trout is generally of a heavier build 

 than the grayling, he is not less " gracefully symmetrical." 

 The grayling has a smaller head and mouth than the 

 trout, and tapers more towards the tail ; but as a set-off 

 against these elegances and graces he has broader 

 shoulders ; while what may be called his " lozenge-shaped " 

 eye gives him an unpleasant or even sinister expression. 



While, however, I fully admit that the grayling is a 

 graceful and symmetrical fish, I cannot divest myself of 

 an idea which always presents itself to my mind whenever 

 I contemplate one. It is that, somehow or other, he is a 



