PARR YOUNG OF SALMON. 67 



berant bag is a singular provision for supplying it with 

 food for the first five weeks of its existence, during 

 which period it takes no external nourishment. Its 

 contents being consumed, it disappears ; and the fringe- 

 like fin, hitherto surrounding the fish, gradually van- 

 ishes, and is succeeded by the true fins in their proper 

 places, 



At the age of two months the fry are distinctly 

 marked with those transverse bars which used to be 

 considered the characteristic of a different species of 

 fish the parr, which, however, by the experiments of 

 Mr Shaw, is now demonstrated to be the young of the 

 salmon ; or, to speak more correctly, the little fish gen- 

 erally termed parr is now shown to be the young salmon. 

 We make this correction out of deference to those who, 

 like Dr Knox, Mr Young, and others, maintain that 

 there is what they term a parr-trout an adult, as they 

 conceive, of the river-trout species. The alleged fact 

 of the existence of such a species of trout can only be 

 set at rest by the production of a female with well - de- 

 veloped roe. Such a female is said to have been seen ; 

 but, considering " the extreme rarity of such a pheno- 

 menon/' we agree with Dr Knox that " it would have 

 been desirable to have preserved the specimen, and 

 submitted it to scientific men." In the mean time, all 

 that is known about parr may be found recorded in a 

 chapter of Dr Knox's little work, ' Fish and Fishing in 

 the Lone Glens of Scotland.' Personally we never saw, 

 nor have we ever met any one who has seen, a female 

 parr with well-developed roe. And Mr Ffennell, one of 

 the inspecting commissioners of the Irish Board of Fish- 

 eries, declares that he has not been able to procure such 

 a parr, though he has been in search of it for years, and 

 has employed others in the search, and offered a high 

 premium for the fish in the desired condition. 



As the distinction betwixt the young salmon in the 

 parr-like state and the so-called trout-parr is not obvious 

 to common observation, the prudent course is to regard 



