10 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



A. Sahnones or true salmon. 



1. Salmo solar. (See Fig. 1.) 



2. „ trulta, witli its sea and fresh-watei' varieties or local races. (See 

 Fig. 2.) 



B. Salvelini or chars. 



3. Salmo alpinus, Britisli eliar. (See Fig. 3.) 



4. „ fontinalis, American char (introduced). 



Fig. 1. — FEONT VIEW OF TEETH ON' FlG. 2. — FRONT VIEW OF TEETH ON FlO. 3. — SIDE VIEW OF TEETH 

 V03IEB OF SALIION GEILSE. VOMER OF BROOK TROUT. ON VOMER OF BlUIIBH CHAK. 



With such plastic forms as tront whether fresh-water or marine, and such 

 diversified a]ipearances as some of these fish assume at different ages, it is not 

 .sui-prising what diverse views have been and arc still held as to the number of 

 sjjecies existing in our waters.* 



* Willoughby, 7/(s(0)-/a P(sc/»ni, ICSG, enumerated (1) a salmon; (2) SiiUnulus; (3) the gray; 

 (4) "the scurf and bull trout," Triitta .talinomita ; (5) TniltnJIuviulilis. 



Eay, Sijnopis Mi'tluxlica Pi.^cium, 1713, gave (1) Salmo, "a salmon;" (2) Sahnuhis, "the 

 samlet;" (3) S. (/riseus seu cinereus, " the gray ;" (4) Tnitta salmoiiata, " the salmon trout," or 

 "bulltrout," or " scurf," (5) Tnittii fliiriatilis, " a trout." 



Pennant, British Zuulogij 1770, described (1) the sahnon ; (2) the gray trout, Salmo eriox, 

 which he believed to be the sewin ; (3) the sea trout, .S'. trutta ; (4) the trout, S. fcirio ; (5) the 

 white salmon ; and ((i) the samlet. He alluded to that from Lhjntcisi, a lake of .South Wales, 

 termed Co(7t i/ <((i(7, and marked with black spots as large as sixpences; to a crooked-tailed 

 variety in the'Einion, a river not far from Machynlleth, and also to a similar form l)eing in the 

 Snowdon lakes ; to the Ciillaroo trout of Ireland, remarkable for the great thickness of its 

 stomach, though it does not otherwise differ from the common trout ; and to the Buddaghs of 

 Lough Neagh, in Ireland, some of which have been known to weigh 30 lb. 



Donovan, in his J:iiUsh Fislie.'s (1802-1808i, referred to the (1) sewen or Salmo camhricus, 

 of which he stated, among other indications, that the head was shorter than in the common 

 salmon, and the tail more forked — this he considered to be an anadromous form peculiar to 

 Wales ; (2) the common salmon, Salmo salar ; (3) the trout, Salmo fario, which he observed to 

 be subject to many variations : and, lastly, to some in Scotch lakes, spotted very differently 

 from the common sorts, which he suspected to be a distinct species, but of which he makes 

 no further mention. Ho likewise observed how trout vary in size, and referred to the Fordwich 

 foi'm, in Kent, which attains to nearly that of the salmon. He also remarked upon the flesh 

 of trout captured during the same season in two contiguous streams in Cardiganshire, the 

 names of which he omits to give, one of which invariably produced the red and the other the 

 white variety. 



Turton, 1807, admitted into his II ritisJi fauna — (1) the salmon, Salmo falar ; (2) the shewen, 

 Sahiw erio.c, to which he referred Donovan's sewen; (3) the salmon trout, Salmo tnilta ; (4) the 

 common trout, Salmo fario; (5) the white salmon, Salmo phinoc ; and (6) the samlet, .Sa/mo 

 salmulus. 



Sir Humphry Davy {Report of rarliamentanj Committee on the Salmon Fisheries of the 

 United Kingdom, May 8th, ls24) gave the following species of the genus Salmo, as captured in 

 the salmon iisheries of Great Britain and Ireland, evidently meaning the sea fisheries : (1) Salmo 

 salar, or the common sahnon, and (2) .S'. erio.r, known under different names indifferent districts 

 as salmon-peal, sewen, bull trout, but most correctly as sea trout. 



Fleming, in his History of Urilish Animals, 1828, enumerated first those anadromous forms 

 that have a forked tail, as (1) the common sahnon, Salmo salar ; (2) the bull trout, Salmo liucho, 

 which is little inferior to the salmon in size, but more elongated, and has white and insipid flesh, 

 but which ho slated had no teeth on the vomer; (3) the phinock or white trout, Salmo albtis, 



