THE SALMON. 247 



Shaw (" Development and Growth of Salmon Fry ") 

 mentions " that he saw two males keeping up an inces- 

 sant combat during a whole day for the possession of the 

 female, and in the course of their struggles frequently drove 

 each other almost ashore, and were repeatedly on the 

 surface, displaying their dorsal fins and lashing the water 

 with their tails." No wonder, then, that so many kippers 

 die. 



The beak of kype after the spawning season is over, 

 disappears. But how ? Day says : " The knob appears 

 to be entirely composed of connective tissue, so cannot fall 

 off, but may be more or less absorbed, as it doubtless is 

 after the breeding season." In a note he gives Professor 

 Gadow's opinion, " who was so good as to make sections 

 of one and stain it with carmine." Professor Gadow says : 

 " The hooks consist entirely of fibrous connective tissue 

 without any trace of cartilaginous cells in it, the whole 

 thing being surrounded by an epiderm. Therefore, the 

 hook cannot be looked upon either as an out-growth 

 of the bones of the lower jaw or as a sort of horny 

 excrescence, like horns, nails, or pads, such as toads 

 possess on the palms of their hands, but as a periodical 

 out-growth of the cutaneous connective tissue which sur- 

 rounds the body, being situated between the epiderm and 

 the bone, without, however, having any relation to the 

 periosteum. This cutaneous connective tissue, explains 

 why and how the hook can again be absorbed, or rather 

 reabsorbed, after the season is over ; certainly it cannot 

 be shed." 



Year after year we have examined the jaws of the large 

 male salmon which are exposed for sale at the fishmongers' 

 shops. In some there is but a sign of the new beak, but 

 always a circular thickening of the tissue covering the jaw ; 

 in others merely the rudiments of the kype ; and again in 

 others the hook is a quarter to half an inch high. In all 

 the large ones the jaws are arched, particularly the upper 

 one, and the hole in the inside of the upper jaw where 

 the point of the former kype rested- intact. 



A correspondent in the Field newspaper, however, 



