Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/550

514 As regards the age of Trout, a personal experience is given of one which had passed nearly twenty years in confinement. Trout show decided preferences for colours; but our author does not consider, as many do, that a certain colour is more deadly because more readily seen, but rather " We believe, in most circumstances, the sky above and the water combined gives a better guide, and that the converse of Stewart's theory is the true one, viz. that 'a certain colour is more deadly because less readily seen,' and that movement is the more visible sensation to the eye of a fish." And further on we read that anglers of experience and with sufficient scientific interest in their practice believe in " a dark fly in a dark water and sky, and a light fly in a bright water and sky." We will only give another quotation: " If a large Trout is on the prowl, or has taken up his special feeding-lie in a stream, he commands the ' key of the situation,' and is not slow to repel all minor fry that come within many feet of his 1 monarchical throne.' This we have often seen when looking down into the clear water from a height. Even before taking the bait himself he will chase away the small fry, i.e. if the bait is lying stationary at his very nose."

is the third volume of a series descriptive of the Fauna of France; those preceding were principally devoted to the Insecta. The present volume treats of the "Thysanoures, Myriopodes, Arachnides, Crustacés, Nemathelminthes, Lophostomés, Vers, Mollusques, Polypes, Spongiaires, and Protozoaires."

The method pursued is a synoptical one. The structural characters are given from class to species, very many of the genera are figured,—in fact, there are 1664 figures in the volume now before us,—and the most salient characters are sought to differentiate throughout. The labour expended in this work must be prodigious; for what monographer does not remember the travail incidental to the formation of a synoptical key to