100 Mr Shaw's Eocpeiiments and Observations on the Parr, 



came readily off on the hand when touched ; the belly was 

 white, and the average length was six inches, vertebrae sixty. 

 There is one circumstance which occurred during the course 

 of my experiments on these fishes which may be worth men- 

 tioning here, although I do not mean to attach much import- 

 ance to the fact. About the first week in May, after they 

 had undergone the change which I have mentioned, I was 

 surprised to find that they were decreasing in number, and, 

 on examination, I found that they had leaped out of the pond 

 altogether, and were lying dead at a short distance from its 

 edge. Whether this circumstance arose from their eager pur- 

 suit after the flies and other insects sporting on the margin, or 

 whether they had leaped out of the pond in hope of making their 

 escape to the sea, (it now being the period of their migration,) I 

 shall not venture to offer an opinion. In March 1855, 1 again 

 took twelve parrs from the river, w hich were distinctly marked 

 with the characteristic bars of that fish. The average length of 

 these individuals was about six inches. These also I put into 

 a pond prepared for such experiments, supplied with a stream 

 of pure water, and, according to my expectation, they had, by 

 the end of April ^ 835, assumed the perfect appearance of the 

 salmon-fry, — the bars being overlayed by the new silvery 

 scales which the parrs of two years old invariably put on, pre- 

 vious to their departure for the sea. 



From these experiments I think there can be no room to 

 doubt, that the large parrs found in the river in autumn and the 

 succeeding spring, (that is, at a period before the salmon-fry 

 migrate,) are in reality the salmon-fry themselves, and that the 

 small or summer parrs, (called by Dumfriesshire anglers the May 

 parrs,) which still remain in the river, are those of one year old, 

 and that they must remain another year, before they depart in 

 the character of salmon-fry. The fact of the parr changing its 

 appearance at a particular season, previous to its migration to 

 the sea, is a circumstance which must be known to many who 

 have made similar experiments, as well as to every angler of 

 any observation, who has angled in rivers w^here this fish 

 abounds, as there are many taken in April, before they have 

 completely assumed their silvery coat, thus demonstrating the 

 fact of themselves. The salmon fry has hitherto been errone- 

 ously supposed to grow to the size of six or eight inches in as 



