ME. T. DAT ON THE LOCH-LEVET?" TROUT. 



71 



On the Loch-Leven Trout (Salmo levenensis). 

 Bj Feancis Dat, C.I.E., F.L.S. 



[Read 2nd December, 1886.] 



Salmo levenejs-sis, Walker. 



Salmo levenensis, Walker, Wernerian Memoirs, i. p. 541 (1808), 

 ajpud Neill ; Walker, Posthumous Essays on Natural History 

 (1812) ; Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, (ed. 2) ii. p. 117, (ed. 3) i. p. 257 ; 

 Gunther, Catal. of Fishes, vi. p. 101 ; Conch, Fishes Brit. Isles, iv. 

 p. 243, pi. ccxx. ; Houghton, Brit. Freshwater Fishes, p. 123, c. fig. ; 

 Day, British and Irish Fishes, ii. p. 92, pi. exvi. figs. 2 & 2 a. 



Salmo taurinus, or Locli-Leven Eull-Trout, Walker, Essays, I.e. 

 (large examples). 



Loch-Leven Trout, Bichardson, Fauna B or. -Americana, 1836, 

 p. 143 ; Knooc, Proceedinyslinnean Society, vol. u.-p.S64!,'Dec.l854<. 



Salmo csecifer, Parnell, Fishes of the Firth of Forth, p. 306, 

 pi. XXX., and Wern. Mem. vii. p. 146, pi. xxx. 



AmoDg the general public, anglers, and fishermen it has, from 

 almost time immemorial, been a subject of argument as to 

 whether the Loch-Leven trout should be considered a species 

 distinct from the burn-trout {Salmo fario) ; and also, supposing 

 it to be a distinct species, whether it may not be the descendant 

 of a marine form which, having ascended the river Leven and 

 obtained access into the loch from the sea, has been unable to 

 return there. Scientific men have joined in this discussion and 

 given or refused specific rank to the Loch-Leven trout ; in the 

 meantime, the form in question has been selected as the stock- 

 fish for the justly celebrated Howietouu fish-farm of Sir James 

 Maitland, which is within 25 miles of Loch Leven and at about 

 the same elevation above the sea, and here facilities have existed 

 for studying the race more closely, perhaps, than any other of 

 our British trout. 



In Sir liobert Sibbald's history of Kinross-shire, 1710, we 

 read : — "Loch Leven abounds with fine fish, such as the salmonds*, 



* The term sahnond was used so vaguely by some authors as applicable to 

 both the salmon and sea-trout, that the simple name being given is hardly 

 sufficient evidence of the presence of Salmo salar. Thus Sir R. Sibbald, in his 

 * Scotia Illustrata,' 1684, divided salmon from salmoneta, and referred to the 

 latter as follows: — ''Salmoneta, qui nostratibus the Salmon -tr out (p. 25). 

 He also observed, "The Grey trout, or Bill-trout, some of them as large as a 

 salmond"; but, as I shall show, this grey stage is not the livery of old speci- 

 mens, and none have been recorded over 10 lb. in weight, it would therefore 

 seem he referred to sea-trout ; again, silvery trout in Scotch lochs are often 

 classed as sea-trout. 



