334 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



that almost conceals the scales. In color the males differ greatly both from 

 each other, aud from their own condition in early summer. Some are 

 very light and some very dark. All are curiously mottled on the back 

 •with brown, green, or blue, aud some shade of red. On the sides are 

 groups of angular red spots, generally vermilion, but sometimes ap- 

 proaching scarlet. The whole lower part of the body is generally suf- 

 fused with a tinge of vermilion or salmon-red, with occasionally a ten- 

 dency to purple. The toughening of the lins and the growth of the 

 mucous coating occurs also with the female, but to a less extent. This 

 is their external condition when the spawning-season arrives. 



(7 d.) Habits of salmon during the spaivning-season. — In the Penob- 

 scot spawning appears to begin during the last week in October. 

 Such, at least, is known from direct observation to have been the 

 time in 1870, in the Mattagamon. In the Miramichi the season is 

 earlier, commencing about the middle of October. * Its progress, if 

 the stage of the water is favorable, is very rapid. In the Miramichi, in 

 1SG8, Mr. Stone found most of the salmon had spawned by October 20. 

 Judging from what I saw on the Mattagamon, and during three seasons 

 of artificial spawning at and near Bucksport, I should say that very few 

 salmon w^ould wait until after the 10th of November. But a good deal 

 depends on the stage of the water. If the water is low the salmon will 

 often wait till rains raise it. A female salmon can retain her eggfi for 

 three weeks after they are ready to be laid, with little or no injury to 

 them. 



The place generally selected for a spawning-bed is just above the 

 verge of a rapid. Frequently, nay, commonly, there is a pool just above 

 t, where the salmon can lie during the day-time. From the behavior of 

 salmon at Bucksport, I should say that, at the spawning-season, they 

 would run down quite as soon as up, to find a suitable place to deposit 

 their spawn, and that they would never perform the operation by day, 

 unless on a dark, cloudy day. Having never observed a salmon of this 

 species in the act of depositing the eggs, t I can only describe the appear- 

 ance of the nest after it is made. It is a simple excavation, two or three 

 feet in diameter and rarely over a foot deep, with the naaterial that 

 came from it piled by the swift current in a heap below. 



(7 e.) Habits of salmon at the end of the spawning-season. — Having fin- 

 ished spawning, part of the salmon probably drop immediately down 

 river to the sea, and it is certain that part linger in the rivers until 

 spring and descend then. In the weirs on the Penobscot a few of these 

 descending salmon are every year caught, generally early in May. Of 



* L. Stoue, p. 216 of this report. 



t A fresh-water Schoodic salmon excavates the nest by turning on the side and flop- 

 ping violently against the bottom with the tail. The female alone does the work, the 

 male lying near her, driving off rivals and predacious fishes, and now and then taking his 

 place for a moment close by her side. 



