232 Salmonidrt of Scotland* 



(Pennant), an anomaly that had not occurred in any one spe- 

 cies of the fishes which I had previously examined. After 

 having carefully noted down the number of rays in the pec- 

 toral, ventral, anal, caudal, and dorsal fins, and the sex, I 

 then proceeded to examine another of the fishes, which was of 

 very different colours from that which I had examined ; and 

 was very much astonished to find the same irregularity in the 

 number of rays of the branchiostegous membrane, and in 

 every instance the same number of rays in the respective fins, 

 but the sex different. I at that time was, and ever since have 

 been, decidedly of opinion, that one of those fishes, which 

 undoubtedly was the Salmo Salvelinus of Bloch, is the male 

 of the same species of which the S. alpinus, the other of them, 

 is the female. The only author whom I have seen, who seems 

 to have the least suspicion that these fishes are of the same 

 species, is Bloch ; and he supposes the difference of colour to 

 arise from the difference of the water, or from the greater or 

 less degree in which the w T aters from which the two fishes 

 respectively come are shaded by trees. I cannot, however, 

 conclude otherwise, than that the difference of colour will be 

 found to be a distinctive sexual mark. Both were caught in 

 the same hour, and in the same stream ; both spawners and 

 milters seemed equally ready, the former to shed their roe, 

 the latter their milt ; both came out of the same lake, conse- 

 quently must have had the same shade, or rather the same 

 want of it ; for, as well as I can now recollect, there were no 

 trees near the lake. Some of the females had a very slight 

 tinge of orange on a part of the belly, but many were quite 

 free from the least of that colour. The bellies of the males 

 were universally of a very deep orange. — Francis Mascall. 

 [Received, Oct. 21. 1833.] 



[Any remarks in relevance of Mr. Mascall's suggestion, 

 from any reader versed in ichthyology, will be valued. A 

 contribution towards the history of the habits of the char has 

 been communicated by O., in V. 316, 317.] 



The Salmonidce of Scotland. — Sir Wm. Jardine, and some 

 friends of his, made, in June, 1834, an excursion to the 

 north-west of Sutherlandshire, mainly for the purpose of in- 

 vestigating the fishes inhabiting the lakes and rivers. He has 

 communicated " Observations upon the *Salmonidae met 

 with," to Jameson's Philosophical Journal, and these are pub- 

 lished in the number for Jan. 1835. They are of much 

 interest. It is proposed that there are four migratory spe- 

 cies : the common salmon, the sea trout, the herling, and the 

 grey; and of species not migratory, the common trout, with 

 five principal varieties of it, some of which may, it is re- 



