236 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



Parnell (" Fishes of the District of the Forth, 1638) con- 

 sidered the parr, or Salmo samulus, as a distinct species ; 

 and he describes the two (parr and young salmon), both 

 taken from the same river in the month of May. He 

 says : " The form of the young salmon is long and narrow ; 

 the snout pointed ; the caudal fin acutely forked. The 

 body of the trout-parr is thick and clumsy ; the snout 

 broad and blunt ; the caudal fin much less forked. 



" The operculum of the salmon-parr is beautifully rounded 

 at its posterior margin, and the basal line of union with the 

 sub-operculum much curved. In the trout-parr this part 

 is nearly straight with the line of union. 



" In the salmon-parr the maxillary is short and narrow ; 

 in the trout-parr it is broader and longer. The pectoral, 

 dorsal, and caudal fin in the salmon-parr are blue, in the 

 true parr dusky. The flesh of the salmon-parr is delicate 

 and pinkish, the bones soft ; the flesh of the trout-parr 

 is white and firm, the bones stout and hard." 



He goes on to say : " It is generally supposed that those 

 small fish, from four to five inches in length, which are found 

 so plentiful in many rivers during the autumn months, and 

 which are marked on the sides with from ten to eleven 

 transverse dusky bands, and a black spot on each gill-cover, 

 are either all parrs or the young of a salmon ; but from a 

 minute examination of several hundreds of these fish taken 

 in various rivers in England and Scotland, I am induced 

 to consider them not all of one species, but the young of 

 various species or varieties of migrating trout, in company 

 with the young of the salmon, with the Salmo samulus or 

 parr, and with different varieties of the fresh- water trout, all 

 of which have received the names of Heppers, Brandlings, 

 Samlets, Fingerlings, Gravellings, Lasprings, Skirlings, 

 and Sparlings." 



Thompson, in his "Natural History of Ireland, 1856, 

 says : " The three most striking characters of the parr, in 

 contradistinction to the common trout, are its tail being 

 more forked, its having only two or three spots on the 

 opercula, and its want of dark-coloured spots beneath the 

 lateral line. The pectoral fin of the parr is larger, and 



