As previously shown, the colours of Fishes may be artificially varied according to their surroundings. Changes of a similar kind occur naturally, and when they tend to assimilate the tints of the Fish to the prevalent hues of its surroundings, and consequently aid concealment, we have examples of what has been termed variable protective resemblance. Individuals of the same species vary in colour according to the opacity of the water they live in, becoming darker in muddy or peaty water, and brighter and lighter in shallower or clearer water. Trout caught in a stream with a gravelly or sandy bottom are lighter in colour than those obtained from a muddy stream, and it is well known that the same Fish changes colour as it passes from the one background to the other.[135] In a lake in County Monaghan, Ireland, the Trout are darker on that side which is bounded by a bog, but are of the beautiful and sprightly variety generally inhabiting rapid and sandy streams on the opposite side where the bottom is gravelly; and narrow as the lake is, the two kinds of Trout appear to confine themselves to their respective areas.[136] Trout obtained from a {172}stream near Ivy Bridge have become much lighter since the pollution of the water by white china clay.[137] As an illustration of the necessity of vision to such colour-changes, it may be mentioned that blind Fishes cannot vary their tint in this protective fashion. A blind Turbot living upon a light sandy bottom differed from its fellows in being much darker and more conspicuous. Dark Trout have been observed among their light-coloured brethren in a chalk stream in Hampshire, but the former were invariably blind, probably, as their larger size indicated, through age.[138] Of other forms of protective resemblance, reference may be made to the bottom-feeding Flat-Fishes (Pleuronectidae), many of which have the upper surface of the body coloured with various shades of brown, speckled with black or light specks or blotches, in harmony with the prevailing tints of the sandy banks which usually form their feeding-ground. When disturbed these Fishes court concealment, and render themselves still less conspicuous by partially burying themselves in the sand. Many of the Skates and Rays, which have a white ventral surface, have the back mottled and coloured in accordance with the colour of the sea-bottom, but in this case it is possible that the advantage lies in enabling the Fish to secure passing prey by concealing its own whereabouts.