PARR. 83 



ABDOMINAL 



MALACOPTERYGll. SALMONIDJE. 



THE PARR. 



Salmo salmultts, WILLUGHBY, p. 192. 

 ,, RAY, Syn. p. 63, sp. 2. 



, ,, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 404. 



THIS little fish, one of the smallest of the British Sal- 

 monida, has given rise to more discussion than any 

 species of the genus. Abounding in our Salmon rivers, 

 and conspicuous for those lateral marks which are known 

 to be borne for a time by the young of the Trout as well 

 as the fry of the other Salmonidte, and this fish always 

 appearing of small comparative size, it has frequently been 

 insisted upon as the young of the Salmon ; and local regu- 

 lations have as generally been invoked for its preservation. 



The fry, however, of the different species of migratory 

 SalmonideE are probably even now only known accurately 

 to a few persons : their great similarity when very small, 

 as shown at page 36, has so frequently deceived even those 

 who have lived the greater part of their lives on the banks 

 of Salmon rivers, that the fry marked by them, in their 

 experiments, believing them all to be what they considered 

 the young of the Parr, have been retaken as Grilse, Grey 

 Trout, Salmon Trout, and River Trout. The transverse 

 dusky bars from which this fish has obtained the name of 

 Brandling and Fingerling are family marks, borne by all the 

 species of the genus for a time, and it has been remarked on 

 this subject by the late M. Fries, the Ichthyologist of Stock- 

 holm, that the more natural the genus the more difficult it is 

 to characterise the species while young. 



G 2 



