372 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



swims up to the midside of the female while she is over the bottom 

 of the nest and nudges her in the side with his snout. These acts of 

 courtship of the salmon and trout have been observed by various 

 authors among whom may be mentioned: Milner (1874, pp. 52-54), 

 vibratory courtship act in brook trout; Hazzard (1932, p. 345), nudg- 

 ing and side-to-side swimming over the female for brook trout; 

 Greeley (1932, pp. 242-243), nudging and side-to-side swimming 

 over female for rainbow trout; Needham (1934, pp. 334-335), nudg- 

 ing and quivering in steelhead trout (pi. 5). Similar courtship activ- 

 ities have been observed by the author in the landlocked sockeye 

 salmon, silver salmon, king salmon, and cutthroat trout (pi. 2). 



FiGURK 4.- A diasjram of the spawning act of the little redflsh, Oncorhynchui nerka. Male (lower) and 

 female (upper). The positions of the fins were not seen, but it is supposed that they were spread against 

 the rocks below, enabling the flsh to maintain their positions in the current. Drawing made by Arthur 

 Wclnnder from preserved fish placed in tlie approximate spawning positions observed by Dan Merriman 

 and Arthur Welander. Courtesy Mid-Pacific Maga:tine. 



THE SPAWNING ACT 



Among the large number of papers written on the habits of salmon 

 and trout, but few authors have definitely described the spawning 

 act and those only within the last 10 years. All others have either 

 not seen it or have more or less confused it with the nest-building and 

 courting acts, from which it may be concluded that the true spawning 

 act is seldom seen. No doubt this confusion and the lack of accurate 

 observation for so many years was caused by the great authority and 

 weight of opinion of certain older ichthyologists, who perhaps exerted 

 too much influence on their students and blinded their eyes to the 

 exact methods of egg laying and fertilization. Recently, observa- 

 tions by Greeley on rainbow trout, Hazzard on eastern brook trout, 

 Belding on the Atlantic salmon, Schultz and Students on the little 

 redfish, a landlocked sockeye salmon (fig. 4), and Needham on the 



