248 Transactions. — Zoology. 



the forms of salmon and trout indigenous to the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans. 



VIII. Salmo salvelini. 



The Char family proper are a beautiful, but more delicate, 

 variety of Salmonoid, shorter lived, and most of their forms 

 requiring deeper and colder water than the trout. We have 

 introduced the American brook char (Salveiinus fontinalis), 

 but have not been very successful with these fish. The only 

 stream I know which is well stocked is the Tahuna-atara 

 Stream, between Eotorua and Taupo, which is full of them, 

 and contains no brown trout. They are evidently very diffi- 

 cult to establish, and attempts to do so have proved a failure 

 in most places, both in England and on the Continent, though 

 in enclosed private waters they have been successfully pro- 

 pagated and are easily handled. My experience with them 

 in the Tahuna-atara was that they were fairly easily caught 

 with a small spinning bait, like a " halcyon spinner," but that 

 they did not rise well at the fly. When caught they made a 

 few strong rushes, and then gave in without a long fight. For 

 the table they are extremely rich and well flavoured, running, 

 in that stream, up to about 61b. in weight, and averaging 

 about 2 lb. 



I consider that it would be worth while trying to import 

 the saibling (Salmo salveiinus) from Europe, and introduce it 

 into our lakes. It is a lively and delicate fish, and it is pro- 

 bable that the S. alpinus and S. umbla are varieties of the 

 same fish, and that we may develope a beautiful variety of 

 our own in some of the clear, deep lakes of New Zealand. 



A few eggs of the S. alpinus arrived and were hatched out 

 at Masterton some years ago, but the young fish died, and 

 for the present we have lost the breed. 



IX. Salmo cakpio (Trutta lacustris carpioni). 



Some years ago we imported and reared to maturity some 

 of a very fine variety of deep-lake trout, the Salmo carpio, 

 or carp trout, of Lago di Garda, in northern Italy, a kind 

 much valued as a table fish by the Italians. This fish has 

 proved very difficult to introduce into any waters where it has 

 been tried, and, unfortunately, owing to a want of knowledge 

 of its habits, we have lost the breed. 



The Salmo carpio live at a great depth, and the best 

 chance would have been to have liberated the young fish in 

 one of the deep lakes in the South Island and let them take 

 their chance. The shallow ponds of our hatcheries were 

 unsuitable to them. Dr. Bettoni, of Brescia, promised to 

 supply us with a further consignment from the Italian Go- 

 vernment hatchery at Peschiera if we required them, and, if 



