Salmonidas 1 07 



The color is silvery, sprinkled with small black dots. It reaches 

 a size little inferior to that of the salmon, and it is said to be 

 an excellent food-fish. In northern Japan is a similar species, 



FIG. 71. Ito, Hucho blackistoni (Hilgendorf). Hokkaido, Japan 



Hucho blackistoni, locally known as Ito, a large and handsome 

 trout with very slender body, reaching a length of 2^ feet. It 

 is well worthy of introduction into American and European 

 waters. 



Salvelinus, the Charr. The genus Salvelinus comprises the 

 finest of the Salmonida, from the point of view of the angler or 

 the artist. In England the species are known as charr or char, 

 in contradistinction to the black-spotted species of Salmo, which 

 are called trout. The former name has unfortunately been 

 lost in America, where the name "trout" is given indiscrimi- 

 nately to both groups, and, still worse, to numerous other 

 fishes (Micropterus, Hexagrammos, Cynoscion, Agonostomus) 

 wholly unlike the Salmonidce in all respects. It is sometimes 

 said that "the American brook-trout is no trout, nothing but 

 a charr," almost as though "charr" were a word of reproach. 

 Nothing higher, however, can be said of a salmonoid than that 

 it is a "charr." The technical character of the genus Salve- 

 linus lies in the form of its vomer. This is deeper than in Salmo; 

 and when the flesh is removed the bone is found to be somewhat 

 boat-shaped above, and with the shaft depressed and out of the 

 line of the head of the vomer. Only the head or chevron is 

 armed with teeth, and the shaft is covered by skin. 



In color all the charrs differ from the salmon and trout. 

 The body in all is covered with round spots which are paler 

 than the ground color, and crimson or gray. The lower fins are 



