The silvery grayling is, perhaps, the most doubtful of all
the salmonidae. He spawns, like the coarse fish, in the spring ; and has a scale-armour on him (to put it strongly) like a mediaeval knight's shirt of mail. Like most of the "coarse fish" (and unlike other members of the salmonidae) he tends to swim in shoals. His mouth is as small and soft as a roach's, and he bites as softly and carefully as a roach at maggot or small worm. But his flesh has- the flavour of a trout's, and he has many of the habits of a trout. - He rises to fly better than any coarse fish, and on many days of summer and autumn gives the fly-fishing angler fine sport. But he is a tantalizing creature when he is too numerous, for he tends to oust the trout—probably because he eats their spawn (though he leaves their young severely alone). He is particularly tantalizing in'the spring when he is out of season, for then the trout fly-fisher who doesn't want to catch him is bothered by his attentions. At least one other member of the salmonidae spawns in the spring, and that is the rainbow- trout, a beautiful species of American trout introduced into this country.
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