Volume 2

The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton].

  • Hamilton, Robert, M.D.
Date:
[1876]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    127/496 (page 123)
    The Parr is well known to every Scottish angler, even though he be the merest tyro in the Gentle Art. It is extremely plentiful in the greater num- ber of our rivers, especially in the lowlands of Scot- land, delighting in clear running streams with a gravelly bottom. In England and Wales it is also found plentifully in similar situations. They congre- gate in small shoals, and remain in a state of great activity at all times of the day, and apparently in all states of the weather. Unlike the trout, their frequent companion, they seem to feed at all times, and are ever ready to take a bait. Indeed in many of the inferior fishing streams, in the end of summer and beginning of autumn, when they are in a greatly reduced state by a dry season, the Parr is almost the only fish that can be taken with the rod. Their markings arc so distinct that they can at all times be easily recognised. Its ordinary length may be stated to be from five and a half to seven inches, although it has been found to reach nine and a quarter. The body is deep in proportion to its length: the head rather blunt; the tail deeply forked. The number of fin-rays as follows: 1st D. 12—P. 13—V. 8—A. 10—C. 19. The teeth are small and sharp; the whole bones of the skeleton rather delicate; flesh white. The colour of the back and sides is olive-brown, marked with numerous small rounded dark spots ; the sides with a row of eight or nine broad abbreviated dusky bands, or transverse spots, a kind of marking com-