128 MALACOP. ABDOM. SALMON FAMILY. 



three feet, and weighing from five or six to twenty- 

 pounds. It is not so elegant in shape as the Sal- 

 mon, the head, nape, and shoulders being somewhat 

 thicker, the length of the former compared to that 

 of the body, being as one to four ; the fleshy por- 

 tion of the tail and the base of the fins are thicker 

 and more muscular than in the Salmon. The form 

 of the gill-cover, on which Mr. Yarrell places much 

 dependence as a distinctive character, but which 

 Dr. Pai nell did not find to be a uniform mark of 

 distinction, is described as follows : Operculum larger 

 than in the Salmon and Salmon Trout; the free 

 vertical margin much more straight ; the inferior 

 posterior angle more elongated backwards ; the lines 

 of union with the suboperculum not so oblique, but 

 nearly parallel with the axis of the body of the fish ; 

 the inferior edge of the suboperculum parallel to 

 the line of union with the operculum ; the inter- 

 operculum much deeper, vertically; the vertical 

 edge of the preoperculum more sinuous.* The teeth 

 are rather long and sharp, there being not more than 

 four (sometimes only two or three) on the vomer, 

 and these placed on its anterior part. Not two 

 authors agree as to the number of fin-rays ; the fol- 

 lowing is Mr. Yarrell's statement : — 



D. 11— P. 14— V. 9— A. 11— C. 19. 



The normal number of the vertebraa is fifty-nine. 

 The caudal fin is even at the end, the middle ray 

 considerably more than half as long as the longest 

 * Yarrell 's British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 71. 



