

84 BROOK OR SPECKLED TROUT. 



ange, inclining to red, with a dark margin; ana! 

 fin red, with white margin, and a black streak 

 between the white and red; caudal fin darkish 

 red, inclining to brown; first dorsal fin yellowish,, 

 barred or spotted irregularly with black. 



All these colors are greatly heightened at the 

 spawning season, particularly in the male. At 

 this time, he has projecting from the tip of the 

 lower jaw, a conical knob, which is received in 

 a corresponding groove in the upper jaw. Its 

 great brilliancy of color at this season, together 

 with this peculiarity of the jaws, has led De Kay 

 into the error of describing it as a distinct species, 

 under the name of salmo Erythrogaster, or red- 

 bellied trout. He has also described another 

 fish, under the name of spotted troutlet, Baione 

 Fontinalis, which is nothing more than the young 

 of the brook trout, thus making three distinct 

 species out of one. The cut at the head of this 

 article, gives a correct idea of the form of the 

 speckled trout ; it was drawn from a living fish ? 

 the Naiad Queen, one of the parent fishes ex- 

 hibited at the Cuyahoga County Fair, in 1854. 



In size, the brook trout varies a good deal; 

 a few have been caught weighing ten pounds, 

 though they rarely attain to this size, five pounds 

 being considered a very large fish. 



The Brook Trout inhabits none but the pur- 



