194 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



BEOOK TROUT. SPECKLED TROUT. 

 Salmo fontinalis : Mitchil. 



Form elliptical, elongated. Color, olive on the back, shad- 

 ing gradually lighter to the lateral line ; sides still lighter, 

 with roseate pearly reflections ; belly white and rose-tinted, 

 sometimes shaded with yellow, and occasionally a deep orange. 

 The markings of this fish are beautiful ; the sides are covered 

 with yellowish spots of metallic lustre interspersed above and 

 below the lateral line with smaller spots of bright vermilion ; 

 the back is vermiculated, that is, marked with dark tracings 

 of irregular form, many of which run into each other. The 

 dorsal fin has five or six lines of dark spots ; the pectorals 

 are olive, with the exception of the two anterior rays, which 

 are black and much stouter than the others; the anterior ray 

 of the ventrals and anal is white, the next black, and the re- 

 maining rays a deep orange ; the caudal is slightly concave, 

 with dusky markings on the upper border of the rays. The 

 head is rather more than one-fifth the length of the body, 

 exclusive of caudal ; breadth one-fourth. 



There are ten branchial rays : the first dorsal fin has eleven 

 rays; the second dorsal being adipose is without rays; the 

 pectorals have twelve rays; the ventrals eight; anal nine; 

 caudal nineteen. 



No fish affords as much sport to the angler as the Brook 

 Trout ; whether he is fished for by the country urchin, who 

 ties his knotted horsehair-line to his alder-pole, and '' snakes 



