152 



SALMONIDiE OF BRITAIN. 



similarly sLaped tail-fin. And twootlier forms of sea trout witb nearly even tail 

 fins, Salmo trutta and S. eriox, the latter being the gray salmon or scurf of 

 WillougliLy and Ray, tlie sewin of Donovan, and also the whitling or phinoc, tlie 

 grilse of the northern sea trout ; showing that these authors united the Welsh 

 sewin with the northern gray salmon and whitling and placed them under the 

 name of Salmo eriox of Linnasus. But Yarrell again reverted to there being only 

 two species, but which he considei-ed were both found in the northern and southern 

 portions of the British Isles. 



During the last quarter of a century much has been written upon our 

 indigenous sea trout, but the number of species has only been augmented (if we 

 omit the estuary forms) by restoring the grilse of the northern form of sea trout 

 to the rank of a species, but ignoring the scientific name Salmo albns, which 

 had been bestowed on it a century ago, and S. phinoc given it by Turton and 

 re-naming it Salmo hrachypoma, Giinther,* while this latter author suggested that 



salmon : his phinoc to the grilse stage of the sea trout : his .S'. trutta to the salmon-trout, 

 and his gray trout to the sewin. Agassiz, 1834, included all forms of sea trout under 

 Salmo trutta. Jenyns, 1835, admitted the buU-or-gray-trout Salmo eriox, which he considered 

 identical with the sewin of Donovan, having an even tail and vomerine teeth confined to its 

 anterior extremity, observing that in the Tweed the young are termed whitlings, while he 

 thought that ,S'. huclio of Fleming must be identical. He gave secondly the sea trout, S. trutta, 

 having the vomerine teeth extending the whole way and the gill-cover slightly produced behind, 

 with the margin rounded ; he considered Pennant's white fish or the Salmo albus, as the herling, 

 whiting or phinoc, to be the young of this latter race. Yarrell, 1836, beheved we possessed 

 two species of sea trout, (1) the gray trout, bull trout, round-tail or sewin, Salmo eriox, the gray 

 trout of Willoughby. He distinguished the gill-covers of these forms as will be seen by comparing 

 the two figures. (See last page, figs. 23, 24 from Yarrell.) The teeth of the S. eriox 

 consist in the adult of two or three on the vomer occupying the most anterior part 

 only : the tail becomes square earlier than in the salmon and becomes convex with age, vertebrae 

 59 or GO. The Warkworth trout and Coquet trout he considered the young of this form. 

 (2) The salmon trout, known also as the truff of Devonshire and white trout of Wales and 

 Ireland, the Fordwich trout, and in its grilse stage as the hirling and phinoc, Salmo trutta, is 

 excellent as food : the form of its gill-covers (fig. 24) being intermediate between that of the 

 salmon (fig. 14, p. 52) and gray trout (fig. 23). The teeth on the vomer extend along a great 

 part of its length : tail fin is less forked at the same age as the salmon, but becomes ultimately 

 square at the end, vertebrfc 58. Sir John Eichardson, in Fauna Boreali- Americana, 183G, gave 

 some notices of British trout (1) salmon-trout in which he found in one example from the Nith 

 59 CcT3cal appendages and in a second 01. He asserted that this is certainly not Salmo trutta of 

 continental authors. (2) Herling, whiting or phinoc, *S'. alius, ca'Ca 49. (3) Sewin, S. camhricus. 

 Parnell, 1838, while generally following Yarrell, admitted the bull trout, Salmo eriox, and asserted 

 that at its grilse stage it was known as whitling in the Tweed, but that such was not the whitling 

 at Berwick. Vomerine teeth confined to the anterior extremity of that bone. When about 

 nine inches in length, has the caudal fin acutely forked; the middle rays elongating with the 

 growth of the fish, and the fin ultimately becoming even at the end; at twenty inches the middle 

 ray is more than half the longest in the fin. As regards Yarrell's dependence upon the formation 

 of the sub-opercle and its line of union with the opercle compared with the body of the fish, he 

 observed that he had in some examples recognized this character, but in others he had found it 

 to vary too much to form an uniform mark of distinction. He alluded to eight varieties he had 

 observed in the Frith of Forth, the characteristics of which formed the basis for their names 

 (see page 10, a}ite). Secondly he recognized the salmon trout, Salmo trutta, in which the 

 vomerine teeth are not confined to its anterior extremity but extend far back: sides with X-shaped 

 spots and tail more or less forked. The grilse of this form being the herling or whitling. 

 Jardine, 1839, gave the gray trout or phinoc : and the Solway migratory trout as herling. 

 While White in 1851, and Thompson in 1856, retained Yarrell's nomenclature. In 1863, H. Wide- 

 grcn (Of vers. Vetensk. AJiad. Fvrhandl.) considered river, lake, and sea and salmon-trout as one 

 and the same si^ecies, assuming a different appearance according to the locality it inhabited and 

 local surroundings. 



* Dr. Giinther, 

 1866, admitted 

 three species into 

 the Catalogue of 

 the Fishes of the 

 Britisli Museum — ■ 

 (1) Sea trout (sec 

 page 10 ante), 

 Sahno trutta, in 

 the grilse stage 

 known as phinok, 

 herling, lammas- 



Fig. 25. Salvia trutta, re- 

 duced to 2 size (Giinther). 



F'ig;.2G. Salmo camhricus,Ye- 

 duced to 5 size (Giinther). 



men, white sal- 

 mon, and gave 

 figures of the gill- 

 covers of the two 

 forms. (Figs. 25 

 and 26.) Found in 

 rivers falling into 

 the Baltic and 

 German Ocean, 

 numerous in 

 Scotland, but less 

 widely distributed 



