SEA TROUT— SALMON-TROUT, THE WHITLING. 



159 



Fig. 32. Head, natural size, of 

 female whitling, 8-2 inches long, 

 Cfecal appendages 50. 



Fig. 33. Head, natural size, of male whitliny, 

 11 inches long, cit'cal appendages 40. 



The Whitling* or Whiting of Cumberland has many local names, being the 

 grilse stage of the salmon-trout (.^ee p. 154). Like the salmon-grilse it has proved 

 a fruitful source of contention to ichthyologists and others. f In July, 1885, the 

 Rev. W. Jackson, m.a., kindly sent me from Carlisle a series of these fishes, 

 furnishing a most complete chain of examples passing from S. tnitta on one hand 

 to S. far in on the other. They were individnally between 7 and 11 inches in 

 length, and seven of them clearly belonged to the white ti'out, Salmon albus, of 

 Pennant, which is also known as Sprod.X The following is a brief summary of these 

 fish. No. 1, male, 11 inches long, ca;cal pylori 40, length of head 5^ in the entire 

 length, three teeth on hind margin of head of vomer, 12 along its body in a zig- 

 zag line. Silvery with black spots above the lateral-line, and two irregular rows 

 below it : dorsal fin with a few black spots along its summit and base : pectoral dark 

 edged, the other fins diaphanous. No. 2, female, 9-5 inches long, csecal pylori 

 4G ; length of head 5 the entire length. Teeth on vomer as in last. Silvery 

 with black spots, dorsal fin dai^k-spotted and candal black edged. Many sea lice 



* Stoddart observed of the Esk, that " in summer a few sea trout, answering the description 

 of whitlings, and weighing from 1 ik to 8 lb., push their way up, and are generally killed. After 

 them, in July and August, succeed the herlings, and lastly, the bills or bulls." ..." The far- 

 famed bull trout of Tarras, a tributary of the Esk, were merely biUs, and, when ' ta'en in 

 season,' herlings or whitens, the latter being another local name for the same description of fish " 

 (p. 230). 



f Pennant, in 1776, remarked that "this species migrates out of the sea into the river T'sk in 

 Cumherland, from July to September, and is called from its colour the whiting.'" He observed 

 upon their having the sea louse adhering to them on their first appearance, that they possess both 

 milt and spawn, while " this is the fish called by the Scots phinoc," and never exceeds a foot in 

 length. I have already shown that although Turton, Fleming, Jardine, Richardson, Giinther, and 

 Couch have considered it a distinct species ; Sir Humphry Davy, Agassiz, Jenyns, Yarrell, Parnell, 

 White, and Thompson held it to be the grilse stage of salmon-trout. Parnell, in 1838, believed the .S'. 

 alhus to be nothing more than the young of some migratory trout, and having remained several weeks 

 on the banks of Sol way Firth, inspecting several hundred specimens and carefully dissecting two 

 hundred, he found them to difi'er exceedingly from one another in their structure, the number of 

 their scales, the colour of their flesh, and the form and arrangement of the lateral spots. He 

 remarked that shortly after entering rivers they lose their silvery appearance, and the flesh, which 

 had previously had a reddish tinge and a delicate flavour, now becomes white and insipid, and the 

 fish soon assumes an unwholesome appearance. They return to the sea in January or February, 

 and are sold in Edinburgh as Lammasmen. Hamilton, Natural Histonj of Britislt Fishes, 1843, 

 also held that " Ichthyologists are now agreed it (S. albns) is nothing more than the salmon-trout 

 after being for a time in the sea and returning to fresh water, and in this state they are called 

 herlings or whitlings, sometimes phinocks." Fishermen have likewise considered them to be the 

 young of the salmon-trout. Thus Mr. Johnstone (1824) deposed before the Salmon Commissioners that 

 " they are called herlings on the Scotch side of the Solway ; they are called whitings on the English 

 side; they are called sometimes lierlings and sometimes whitlings at Berwick; they are caUed 

 xehitelings on the Tay, and finnocks in the north of Scotland." Wliile Lord Home, as stated by 

 Yarrell, observed that " the whitling in the Tweed was the salmon-trout {S. cambric us or eriox), 

 not the young of the bull trout (S'. trntta), which now go by the name of ' trouts ' simply." 



+ A correspondent of Frank Buckland observed that "the flesh of the sprod, or smelt 

 {Salmo albus) or herling is white, that of the mort (S. trutta) is pink." 



