22 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
The large dorsal fin has a line of red-brown spots, 
and the sides indistinct lines of dark gray. The 
grayling has a smell peculiar to itself, likened to 
that of thyme by some, as resembling cucumber 
by others. This characteristic is repeated in 
Thymallus vulgaris, the technical name of the 
species. 
Unlike trout, grayling do not thrive in moun- 
tain streams, but in rivers having a happy com- 
bination of ripple and pool, with clean, gravelly 
bottoms. Their favourite haunts are still streams 
and eddies, rapid shallows, and gravelly basins. 
At times the fish are fond of lying at the tail of a 
weed ; and deep water beneath a hollowed bank 
is a sure “find” when fish are rising freely. 
When the water is high and discoloured, they 
are on the edge of the stream, on the look-out 
for bottom food, but not refusing to rise at a 
tinselled or highly-coloured fly. The grayling’s 
food consists of flies, larvae, crustacea, and worms. 
In spinning for trout in April and May, grayling 
are occasionally taken with the minnow; but in 
this case they probably get hooked in driving a 
supposed intruder from their spawning ground. 
At all events it is a question whether a minnow 
has ever been found inside a grayling. The time 
of spawning is greatly dependent upon the season, 
but is usually towards the end of April or early in 
