78 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



ON A PECULIAR CHARR FROM 

 INVERNESS-SHIRE. 



By R. H. TRAQUAIR, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 



ON the /th March I received for the Museum, from Mr. 

 Harvie-Brown, a fish which had been sent to him by Mr. D. 

 Watson, fishing - tackle maker, Inverness, as having been 

 taken on the 28th February by a local angler " in the tidal 

 water of the Ness." Mr. Watson also proceeds to say : " The 

 fish seems to be peculiar, and to differ from the ordinary sea 

 trout. The fins are unusually large for its size, and are 

 tipped with orange ; the tail is forked, and the scales are 

 very small. I have shown the fish to several gentlemen, 

 who have not seen anything similar in their experience." 



That the fish was a Charr was at once suggested by the 

 small scales and the pale edges of the fins on the lower 

 aspect of the body ; but the colour was altogether aberrant, 

 being dark and blackish on the back and sides, without any 

 trace of spots whatever. Moreover, the tidal water of a 

 river is hardly the place where we would expect to find a 

 Charr, which, according to Day, " appears to require very 

 pure and mostly deep water for its residence." 



The fish measures lof inches from the tip of the snout 

 to the extremities of the rays of the centre of the caudal fin. 

 The length of the head, 2^ inches, is rather more than the 

 depth of the body at the front of the dorsal fin, and is con- 

 tained about 4^ times in the total up to the middle of the 

 caudal. The maxilla extends backwards to slightly behind 

 the eye ; the teeth are very small, and those on the vomer 

 are confined to the " head " of that bone. The fins are very 

 large, the pectoral being as long as the entire head, so that its 

 posterior extremity reaches back to ^ inch from the origin of 

 the ventral, which in turn reaches to \ inch from the begin- 

 ning of the anal, and is about as long as the front part of the 

 dorsal is high. The caudal fin is also large and emarginate. 

 So far as can be ascertained by counting the rays through 

 the skin, the fin formula is D. 13 ; P. 13 ; V. 9 ; A. 12. 



The colour on the back and sides is blackish, passing into 

 a dirty or grayish white along the belly, there being, however, 



