398 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



on the moor, by the loch-side, or on the North Sea, Mr. Crawford 

 seems equally at home, prepared to appreciate to the fullest the 

 beauties of Nature, and possessing the knack of imparting his 

 good spirits to others. His agreeably written chapters cannot 

 be said to abound in original observation, nor is there much that 

 can be called new in relation either to fishing or natural history ; 

 nevertheless there are many pages that will repay perusal. 



Commenting upon a quotation : " The Salmon's back is fenced 

 with tiny blue slates like the miniature roof of a house. Could 

 anything match more exactly the blue slates with which our 

 rapid streams abound?" Mr. Crawford observes : — " Were it not 

 truer to say that the ' new run ' Salmon wears the double livery 

 of the migrant, adapted to both spheres. The glory soon de- 

 parts, and he takes the muddier hues of the fresh water. Some- 

 times he covers himself with red and black spots, like a gigantic 

 Trout. The marine forms of the shadowless sea are silvery, 

 with a darker shade on the back, and generally without slates. 

 If river forms took to the salt water they would put off their 

 spots as of no further use. Examples of the brook Trout have 

 been found, on emigrating to the sea, as a rule, to which there 

 are exceptions, to assume the brilliant silvery hues of the 

 migrating Salmonidce, as well as the cross-shaped black spots. 

 Mr. Harvie Brown remarked, June 12th, 1852, on having caught 

 at Durness several so-called sea Trout from a sea-pool, or first 

 pool at the mouth of the river, fresh water at low tide, salt or 

 brackish water at high tide. From their silvery appearance they 

 are known as sea Trout, but are the river form, acclimatised to 

 brackish water, or periodically visiting the same between tides." 



Writing of bird-life in Scotland, Mr. Crawford makes the 

 following remarks about the nesting habits of the Wheatear, a 

 bird sufficiently familiar to most of us as one of the earliest of 

 spring migrants to appear : — 



" The Wheatear reaches the Scots moors — for it is a migrant 

 — as early as March. The apology for a nest, with its faint blue 

 — almost white — eggs will be in many of the disused holes of 

 his comrade the rabbit. They are easily found, because of his 

 slovenly habit of leaving chopped pieces of bracken round the 

 opening. As in the case of most of our hardier migrants, a few 

 may remain with us all the year round." 





