47 o AMERICAN FISHES. 



with access to better and more comprehensive material for research than 

 was formerly available, has led to the rejection of many of the nominal 

 species formerly recognized. Out of the forty-three species of Salmon ten 

 years ago believed to exist in North America, only thirteen or fourteen 

 are now recognized. In Giinther's catalogue of "The Fishes in the 

 British Museum," published in 1SS6, thirty-one species of Chars were 

 mentioned, while in his lately published "Study of Fishes " the same 

 author ventures to enumerate only thirteen, all others being regarded as 

 insufficiently characterized. In his treatment of the Chars of Europe, 

 Giinther is, notwithstanding, one of the most conservative writers, for he 

 catalogues eight species of these fish, while most other European students, 

 following the lead of the great German ichthyologists, Von Siebold, re- 

 gard them as members of one polymorphic species. The sympathies of 

 most American ichthyologists are, naturally, with the school of Von Siebold. 

 It is difficult to believe, in the light of our own observations upon the 

 salmon family in America, that every little lake or group of lakes in 

 Europe possesses a well-characterized species of fish, and for the present 

 it seems safer to consider the Chars of Europe to be of a single well-marked 

 species which undergoes numerous variations under the influence of changes 

 in temperature, elevation, food, and light, and that the Saibling of Bavaria 

 and Austria is one and the same thing with the "Ombre Chevalier" of 

 France and Switzerland, " Salmario " of Northern Italy, the " Torgoch" 

 of Wales, the fresh-water " Herring" of Ireland, the " Char " of England 

 and Scotland, the " Rdding" of Sweden, and the " Kulmund " of 

 Norway. 



SPECIES OF SALVELINUS. 



.1. Hyoid teeth ; back never mottled. 



a. Subopercle nearly as deep as long, without conspicuous striations. 



b. Gill-rakers fewer than 20; habitat Western America ; migratory, cceca 25-46. S. MALMA. 



bb. Gill-rakers more than 20; habitat Eastern America. 

 c. Migratory; species very large; usually spawning in large streams and then going to sea. 



gill-rakers 9-15; cseca 30-35, S. STAGNALIS. 



cc. Land-locked ; species medium size or small. 

 d. Back blue ; caudal not tipped with white in young ; size very small ; gill-rakers 9-15 ; cceca 38 



S. OQUASSA. 

 dd. Caudal tipped with white in youug; size medium or large. 

 e. Introduced species ; 19 gill-rakers below angle ; stomach slender ; hyoids in a very narrow 



band; cceca 40-42. S. ALP1NUS. 



ee. Native species, 14 gill-rakers below angle ; stomach stout ; iiynids in a broad band ; young 



with clouded parr-marks ; gill-rakers 7-10-9-14 ; cceca 49. S. AGASSIZII. 



aa. Subopercle twice as long as deep, conspicuously striated. 



f. Red spotted ; size very large ; gill-rakers, in young, 8-12 ; cceca 36. ?. ROSSII. 



//". No red spots ; size small ; cceca 31-44. S. ARC'l 'URUS, 



-(..'. Hyoids absent (usually); back mottled, except in sea-run examples. 



g. Gill-rakers to below angle; stomach very stout; cceca 44. S. FONTINALIS. 



Salvelinns fontinalis, the best known of our Red Spotted Trouts, the 



