238 Zoological Society, 



this obscure and therefore so interesting group of Salmonidce, and to 

 give a more satisfactory account of them after having compared them 

 with their congeners of the Continent. 



Salmo Willughbii. 



(The Charr of Windermere.) 



Body compressed, slightly elevated, its greatest depth being one- 

 fourth of the distance of the snout from the end of the middle caudal 

 rays ; the length of the head is a little more than one-half of the 

 distance of the snout and of the vertical from the origin of the dorsal. 

 Head compressed ; interorbital space convex, its width being less than 

 twice the diameter of the eye. Jaws of the male of equal length 

 anteriorly ; teeth of moderate strength, four in each intermaxillary, 

 twenty in the maxillary. Length of the pectoral less than that of 

 the head, much more than one-half of the distance between its root 

 and that of the ventral. Dorsal rays twelve. 165 transverse series 

 of scales above the lateral line. Sides with red dots ; belly red ; 

 pectoral, ventral, and anal with white margins. 



Through the kindness of F. T. Buckland, Esq., I have received 

 four specimens of a closely allied species from Iceland. They are 

 from 1 9 to 15 inches long, and were imported in large quantity by 

 Mr. Hogarth : having been prepared like smoked Salmon, they are not 

 in a state fit for an accurate examination, although in their external 

 characters (even in the colours) they are pretty well preserved. 

 The vertebral column, gills, and intestines had been removed from 

 the fishes before they were smoked. Now those fishes agree exter- 

 nally very well with the Charr of Windermere ; and I should not 

 hesitate to consider them as one species, but for a statement made 

 by Valenciennes, according to which the vertebral column of that 

 northern species is composed of sixty-seven vertebrae*. Having 

 laid bare the spine on one side of the Windermere specimen, which 

 I have described and figured, I have found only fifty-nine vertebrae 

 — a number stated also by Yarrell. A difference of eight vertebrae 

 will not be found within the limits of one species of Salmo ; but it 

 is a question whether the skeleton in the Paris Museum really is 

 that of an Iceland Charr f, Valenciennes having comprised under 

 the name of Salmo alpinus " plusieurs Truites rapportees de Norvege 

 par Noel de la Moriniere, ou de Suede et d'Islande par M. Gaimard," 

 without adding whether the skeleton referred to belongs to a Scan- 

 dinavian or Iceland specimen. 



Faber ('Fische Islands,' p. 168) also mentions the Iceland Charr 

 under the name of Salmo alpinus, a name which cannot be applied 

 to the specimens brought by Mr. Hogarth, for the same reasons as 

 stated above. The description given by him is valueless with regard 

 to specific distinction ; and as he unites a true (freshwater) Charr 

 with another fish regularly entering the sea, it is probable that he 

 has confounded two species. 



* Cuv. et Val. xxi. p. 250. 



t Salmo umbla (Lake of Constance) has sixty-five vertebrae (Rapp, Bodensee- 

 fische, p. 33). 



