228 
COMMON TROUT, 
differ fioni any that are found elsewhere; for they are not only 
unlike bees and wasps, but they unite in themselves the likeness 
of all these insects. The people of that country call them hippuri 
-horseflies; and as they fly near the surface of the water they 
are easily discerned by the fish, which therefore glides gently to 
the place where their shadows fall, and, just as a wolf snatches 
a sheep from the flock, with a gulp it seizes the fly, and instantly 
plunges with it into the depth of the stream. This has been 
noted and copied by the fishermen, but with some variation, for 
they do not employ the natural fly, which will scarcely bear 
the handling, but they imitate it by art. A small quantity of 
purple wool is wrapped round the hook, and a couple of wings 
are added from yellow neck feathers of a cock. The rod and 
line are each four cubits long, and this contrivance, W'hen .skilfully- 
cast on the stream, is found eminently successful.”— (Hist, of 
Animals, B. 15, 0. 1.) It was in Germany, and there only as 
far as we are informed, that fishing for Trout was formerly for- 
bidden to all but the privileged, and in some States the penalty 
was the loss of a hand. 
Within a certain range of temperature, from the far north 
of Europe, and perhaps of America, as also in brooks high 
up towards their source in lofty situations, to so far south as 
Italy, the Trout is a common fish even in places where no 
other fish is found. Sir John Malcolm discovered it in a stream 
of a mountain in Aderbijan, a province of Persia; and Bishop 
Heber observed it in the Himalayan Mountains, although it 
does not exist in the lower districts of India. On the other 
hand Captain Parry found it, or a kindred species, in a lake 
m Melville Island, where the temperature falls to minus 55°. 
But everywhere its habits vary with the season; for when 
young and in summer it prefers the shallows; but as the sun 
loses Its power it retires to the deeper water, and shelters itself 
under the protection of some overhanging bank, or the knarled 
root of some projecting tree; of which it is the belief of 
anglers the most likely to be chosen is the willow. To this 
the older fish resort on the appearance of danger; and from 
this they do not often wander far away; for, contrary to their 
habits when young, the aged Trout is nocturnal, and it is by 
night that its courage enables it to sally forth with eager and 
even ravenous appetite, to seize whatever it finds in motion 
