This page needs to be proofread.

FISHES the Loch Leven trout (Salmo trutta, var. levenensis) and the rainbow trout of America (S. irideus) into our principal streams. It is perhaps too early to speak as to the results of these experiments, but it may be said that they have at any rate proved partly successful. The number of species treated of in the following list amounts to thirty-one. Of these however the crucian carp and the variety known as the goldfish can hardly be said to exist in a natural state, and, as well as the common carp, owe their position to artificial means, and have but little more right to a place than the Loch Leven and rainbow trout spoken of above. The sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) has not been definitely recorded from Derbyshire waters since 1838, and the latest occurrence of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) dates back to 1863. Further evidence as to the presence of the rudd (Leuciscus erythrophthalmus] in the Trent is desirable, and the exact range of the flounder (Pleuronectes flesus) and white bream (Abramis blicca] need careful definition. The literature on the subject of Derbyshire fish and fishing is some- what scanty. One can hardly pass over the references to the river Dove in the great classic of the fishing world, Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler. Charles Cotton, himself a Derbyshire man, makes numerous allusions to his native streams in his poems. In 1829 Glover published his History of the County of Derby, and in vol. i. pp. 16671 gives a very full and on the whole good account of the fishes of the county. R. Garner's Natural History of the County of Stafford (184460) contains brief notes on the fish of the Trent and Dove. In 1863 was published The Natural History of Tutbury, by Sir Oswald Mosley. In this work the author gives, on pp. 6482, a sketch of the fish of south Derbyshire, and Mr. Edwin Brown contributes a carefully drawn up list of the fishes of Burton-on-Trent (pp. 114-8 and 229). Mr. J. R. B. Masefield con- tributed ' A Sketch of our Local Freshwater Fish ' to the Transactions of the North Staffordshire Naturalists' Field Club (1894), which contains many references to the Dove and Trent. The zoological reports in the same publication may also be consulted, as well as the Transactions of the Burton-on-Trent Natural History Society, which contain some papers on the subject by Mr. G. M. Day, the Zoologist, Field, Fishing Gazette, etc. In this connection may be mentioned two local works which contain much of interest, Messrs. Shipley and Fitzgibbon's True Treatise on the Art of Fly-fishing, Trolling, etc., as practised on the Dove, etc. (1838), and The Scientific Angler, by David Foster (1882). The latter has now reached its ninth edition. In the present paper an attempt has been made to define the range of each species. Of course like all first attempts the result is imperfect, but it is hoped that it may prove a useful contribution towards a more complete knowledge of our aquatic fauna. In this connection I have to thank many contributors who have assisted me with useful information, including Messrs. G. H. Storer, J. R. B. Masefield, O. B. Murphy, W. H. Foster, R. Hall, G. M. Bond, T. Hampton, G. Eaton and others. in