92 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



The preoperculum, or small bone at the back of the gill 

 cover, has the rounded corner characteristic of the Salmon. 

 The system of dentition in the Wananishe is precisely that 

 of Salino Salar, but the teeth are larger and more numerous 

 on the vomer and palatines. This is probably a case of specific 

 adaptation, as the Wananishe lives much on small fish, and 

 unlike the sea Salmon when the latter is in fresh water, is 

 continually feeding. In some specimens I have found a few 

 teeth on the hyoid bone, though Jordan & Gilbert ("Synop- 

 sis of the Fishes of North America," 1882, p. 311), following 

 Gunther, give the absence of hyoid teeth as a characteristic 

 of the genus Salar. 



The number of spinal vertebrae is 59-60; of caecal append- 

 ages, I have counted from 50-60 in different specimens. 



There are 120 rows of scales along the lateral line, 11-12 in 

 a line from the edge of the adipose fin to the lateral line, 

 which, if continued, would pass just above the pupil of the eye, 

 and is well marked. 



The fins are proportionately much larger than in the sea 

 Salmon, especially the tail, which is deeply forked in the young 

 fish, but only slightly lunate in large adults. In a five-pound 

 specimen it will have a spread of seven or eight inches; in a 

 three-pound fish, si.x inches. The dorsal is high and broad, 

 the pectorals long. The adipose fin is unusually large. 



The number of branchiostegal and fin rays has long been 

 abandoned as a specific criterion, but the following compari- 

 son shows the similarity in this respect between the various 

 species: 



The eye is remarkably large, about three-quarters of an 



