150 TRAILS ACTIONS OF THE [MaII. 13 



sjiots, there is endless variety. Some forms have none ; some, 

 large s^iots ; others, small — yellow, orange and red — and singu- 

 larly, in certain species, each spot is surrounded by a white 

 ring or halo. The fins take their color from the back and sides, 

 and have the broad white band. The foreign saibling is 

 gregarious like the Sunapee form ; lives similarly on crusta- 

 ceans, w^orms and fish-food, and seeks the deepest and coldest 

 waters. 



The greater the altitude, the more intense the coloration and 

 the smaller the fish. In Lake Zug, the saibling run eight or 

 nine to the pound ; in Lake Geneva, they are said to attain a 

 weight of over twenty pounds. The flesh is white or red, which, 

 however, makes no difference in the flavor. The foreign saib- 

 ling is taken in nets, or with hook and line ; it is eaten fresh or 

 smoked. 



Colonel Hodge has attempted to prove a dissimilarity between 

 the Gei'man saibling aud the Sunapee charr by crossing each 

 with our common brook trout, and noticing differences in the 

 markings of the resulting fry. He writes me that the eggs of 

 the cross between the German saibling and our brook trout are 

 larger than those of the cross between the Sunapee Aureolus 

 and the brook trout, and that there are conspicuous differences 

 in the fry of the two hybrids, both of which are fertile. Cross- 

 ing our brook trout, with other forms of the foreign saibling, 

 would certainly give different results again ; so the experiments 

 of Colonel Hodge cannot be regarded as conclusive, beyond 

 establishing the fact that the AvreoluH of Sunapee is in no ivay 

 connected ivith the particular form of German saibling sent to Netv 

 Ham])shire in 1881 ; but this is a most important fact in the 

 induction of its aboriginality to New England. Colonel Hodge 

 further states another supposed difference: "The aureolus 

 does not seek the streams to spawn ; the saibling does." But 

 the saibling does not always spawn in streams ; the rule is the 

 other way. 



At Windermere, the charr spawn both on the rocky becl of 

 the Brathay, and in the lake. Schroeder, in his " Katechismus 

 der Kunstlichen Fischzucht," expressly states that the saibling 

 in October and November ascends from the depths in which it 

 usually lives, and si:)awns off sandy shores in the lakes. Pro- 

 fessors Benecke and Dalmer describe great schools of fish 

 spawning in October or later, even as late as January and 

 March, on sand or gravel near the shores. The Sunapee fish, 

 then, simply follows the practice of its European relatives. 



Finally, there can be no doubt as to the economic value of 

 this new fish. It is one of the most prolific of ov;r salmonids. 



