208 



ICHTHYOLOGY. 



Malacop- 

 terygii 

 Abiiomi- 

 nales. 

 Salmo. 

 nidae. 



5. salmulus, or pnrr. An abundant species in all the 

 clear running streams in England and Wales, and the south 

 of Scotland ; but in the last-named country it begins to 

 decrease, so as to become comparatively rare, towards the 

 north. It frequents the clearest streams, delighting in 

 the shallower fords having a fine gravelly bottom, and 

 hanging there in shoals, in constant activity apparently 

 both day and night. It is found during the whole year 

 in the rivers; but its breeding has not yet been discover- 

 ed, though the fish are found in such a state as to shed 

 their spawn when handled, close to the verge of the tide- 

 way. It is a remarkably beautiful little fisli when newly 

 taken from the water, above of a greenish gray, beneath 

 white inclining to yellowish, the sides marked with dull 

 bluish patches of an oval form, and the body above the 

 lateral line sparingly spotted with brownish-black and red. 

 On the gill-covers there are two black s)K)ts, one of which 

 is often indistinct. Tiiis fish has been always confounded, 

 and still is so, with other species. Many maintain it to be 

 the young of the salmon, while others insist that it bears 

 that relationship to the common trout. The presence of 

 the dark finger-like markings upon their sides has natvnally 

 assisted in this confusion. These marks, however, are dis- 

 tinguished by being always narrower in their form than in 

 the trout or young salmon.' Besides the external aspect 

 being so distinct tiiat any observer will without difficulty 

 separate them when seen together, the whole skeleton of 

 our present species is more delicately formed, as are also 

 the teeth. The form of the opercular bones is likewise 

 different, and the length of the maxillary bones is much 

 less in the .S'. salmulus, or parr, showing a very marked 

 difference when the open mouths of the different fish are 

 exhibited together. Another distinction is, the great 

 width and power of the pectoral fins, evidently a special 

 provision, as the principal organ of support in those rapid 

 streams where tiiis little fish is almost always found. 



Although the history of the parr is still, in truth, ob- 

 scure, we certainly deem ourselves authorized to state 

 that it is not the young of the salmon. It may be found 

 in rivers throughout the year, and is more especially a- 

 bundant during those midsummer months in which the 

 acknowledged young of the salmon is unknown except as 

 a fish returning from the sea. The most characteristic 

 and irrepressible instinct of the latter seems to consist in 

 its descent to the sea a i'ew weeks after exclusion from 

 the egg ; and if our summer parr is also the young of the 

 salmon, the fact presents a very rare and remarkable ex- 



ample of different individuals of the same species vary- 

 ing in their instinctive habits. The occurrence of parr in 

 rivers so long after midsummer, and the entire disappear- 

 ance oi smoults (as the young salmon are sometimes call- 

 ed) anterior to that period, is a main argument in favour 

 of their being distinct kinds ; and we cannot get over the ■ 

 difficulty by simply asserting, that such as go down to the 

 sea early are parr, and that such as go down late are parr 

 also. It is admitted that tlie ova of salmon are hatched 

 in spring, and that the growth of the young (by whatever 

 name we choose to call it) is extremelj' rapid. Now, as 

 nobody ever finds a parr above a few inches long (six 

 inches is a large one), and as by the end of summer they 

 must be several months old, how can we (in the belief of 

 their being young salmon) reconcile their imputed age 

 with their actual dimensions?'- Still more difficult will it 

 be to explain, in connection with that belief, how the 

 brood which has descended seawards in the spring should, 

 after the lapse of the same period, be found in their na- 

 tive rivers weighing many pounds. 



The preceding are all the species belonging to our pre- 

 sent group which have been yet ascertained to inhabit the 

 waters of Britain. On the Continent of Europe we have 

 the S. lacuslris, Linn., found in the lakes of Lower Aus- 

 tria, and in the Rhine above Constance, and reaching to an 

 enormous size.'* 



In the northern parts of North America, according to 

 Dr Richardson, trout abound in every lake and river. In 

 the Appendix to that gentleman's first expedition under 

 Captain Franklin, the diflerent varieties are all placed un- 

 der <S'. fario, or common trout. It is doubtful, however, 

 whether that species exists at all in America ; and several 

 species entirely distinct will be described in the third vo- 

 lume of the Northern Zooloyy, which have much of the co- 

 louring of some varieties of the European trouts, but differ 

 remarkably in the smallness of the scales.* Specimens of 

 forty pounds in weight were seen ; and in Lake Monito 

 they were said to attain the weight of ninety pounds. 



Another small group, which has hitherto been placed 

 among the true Salmones, contains the fish commonly 

 known under the name of Char. They differ from the 

 trouts in the very small and narrower form of the scales, 

 in the more delicate toothing (the vomer furnished with a 

 single minute tuft at the tip, instead of being armed for 

 its whole length), in the remarkably brilliant change which 

 takes place during the season of breeding, a change very 

 much more completely developed than in any of the other 



Malacop- 

 tervgii 



Abdomi- 

 nales. 

 Salmo- 

 nidsE. 



' We would also suggest, as a good logical argument against the fact of S. salmulus being the young of the common salmon, 

 that it is frequent in streams where salmon are scarcely ever seen. " What a jiity it is," uliserves tlie Kev. George Low, " that I 

 am almost obliged to deny the salmon a place in the Orkney zoology ; yet true it is, that this noble tish is so seldom got here, that 

 it is considered as a ■wonder when one is thrown asliore, or runs so tar up one of our burns as to be taken. I have not heard of above 

 three or four instances of salmon being taken in Orknev, three of which (if they were all salmon) were killed and brought on shore 

 by the otter from the sea, and i)icked up by the country people, and a fourth which stuck in a mill-wheel, and was caught by the 

 miller." The same writer, under the article Pan\ observes, " Pretty /myj/cii/ in the shallower lakts and clear burns, tliough not in 

 such numbers as I have observed them in Scotland." {Fauna Orcudrnsis. Y\). i."JO and 223.) The reader will also bear in mind, that 

 as we advance northwards in our own island, the parr becomes scarcer, the salmon more abundant, — and that while in the icy 

 streams of the arctic regions the former has riot yet been detected, the latter swarms in (elsewhere) unequalled luunbers. It is 

 scarcely worth while to allude to the opinion maintained by the late Sir Humphry Davy and others, that the parr is a hybrid or 

 mule between the trout and salmon ! 



= We yesterday (Uth September 1835), while angling in the North F.sk, above the beautiful residence called The Bum, in Kin- 

 cardineshire, killed about a dozen parr, two of which, measuring eight inches in length, were the larjrest we had ever seen. They were, 

 however, as usual, spotted with red along the lateral line, and tinged all over the under parts, like trouts, with yellow. They ex- 

 hibited no approach to the silvery character of the salmon, nor any departure from the usual asjiect of the parr. The majority 

 of the others were of the ordinary size, and some of them so small as to render it entirely incomprehensible — unless we are totally 

 misinformed regarding the spawning periods of the salmon, and the time of its exclusion from the egg — by what process of rea- 

 soning they could be maintained to be the young of that fish. 



^ We are not yet in a position to judge conclusively regarding the identity or distinction of the great lake trouts of Switzerland, 

 and our own Suhno fcrox. '^ I. a grande truite du I-ac de Geneve (^Salmo kmanus, N.)," says I5aron Cuvier, " qui se trouve aussi 

 dans quelques lacs voisins, a la tete et le dos semes de petitcs taclies rondes et noiratres sur un fond blandvitre ; sa chair est iris 

 blauclie. II y en a de quarante et de cinciuanle livres." (Itcgne Animal, ii. 303.) Now the gigantic tyrant of our Scotch lochs, to 

 fay nothing of other discrepancies, has the llesh of an orange hue. 



* The greater number of the ])lates for the volume above alluded to have been for some time engraved, and their publication, 

 with the corresponding descriptions, will atibrd an important addition to the library of the Ichthyologist. 



