448 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [DeC. 



its fins were bright yellowish ; it, too, was inferred to be a salmon- 

 parr. I need hardly remark that these few observations justify- 

 no more than the probability that the male parr of the sea-trout, 

 like the male parr of the salmon, exercises generative funclions. 

 The size of the young fish and the color of the fins can scarcely 

 be relied on as characteristics of species. Be this as it may, it is 

 noteworthy in the history of the male parr, that it discharges its 

 milt before it descends to the sea as a smelt, which is the name the 

 young fish receives when the parr-markings are hid by a new 

 growth of silvery scales. In no instance that I have examined 

 smelts, in their advanced stage, when migrating seaward, have I 

 found their testes otherwise than shrunk. No suspicion is entertained 

 that I am aware of, that the trown-trout of our lakes and rivers 

 (S./ario) exhibits the peculiarity in question, — the early develop- 

 ment of its testes. The absence of it has, I believe, hitherto been 

 taken for granted, rather than proved. To endeavor to satisfy 

 myself about it, I have examined a certain number of young trout 

 when in that stage of growth, similar to the parr ; when about 

 eight months old it may be presumed, about four inches long, and 

 having transverse bar-markings on their skin like those of the parr 

 but fainter, and distinguishable only when wet and during the 

 life of the fish. In none of them have I found the testes more 

 than rudimentary, merely fibre-cords, corresponding in size to the 

 rudimentary state of the ovaries of the females of the same species. 

 I shall pass on now to another point which is not without interest, 

 the time, namely, when the salmon and sea-trout begin to breed. 

 It may be stated, I believe, as an established fact, that the salmon 

 breeds on its first return from the sea, when it is designated a 

 grilse, and commonly weighs from five to seven pounds. That it 

 breeds thus early is a conclusion founded on nature, or nearly 

 nature, ova havino; been found in the female on enterinij; the fresh 



7 CD O 



water, and the disappearance of these ova when the fish is taken 

 on returning to the sea. Is the breeding-time of the sea-trout ana- 

 logous ; is it, too, on its first migration from the sea sufiiciently 

 advanced to propagate its kind ? I believe not. From my own 

 observations, and from all the information I have been able to col- 

 lect, its ovaries on quitting the sea as a " finnick " (the designation 

 applied to it in the north at this period of its growth) are little 

 more than in a rudimentary state ; and, further, that they ad- 

 vance very little towards maturity during the sojourn of the fish 

 in river or lake. The following observations, taken from my note- 



