THE SCALES OF THE SALMONID^ 267 



to base further deductive analysis, not only with regard to 

 the distinction of biological types of salmon, but as to the 

 life history of any member of any one such type. 



To deposit its eggs, when, and as a result of, being sexually 

 excited, can be the only correct meaning of the word 

 spawning, but to expel, or discharge its ova under any other 

 circumstances cannot be so considered. 



It has been claimed that a salmon in captivity has been 

 twice artificially spawned. Even if this be so, it does not 

 prove that such a fish would have spawned even once 

 naturally. It only proves that ova can be developed and 

 shed, and a spawning condition again arrived at, with 

 which probability I quite agree.* 



No individual male or female salmon has been seen to 

 spawn in a natural manner, has been then captured and 

 marked, and found to revisit the spawning beds and again 

 spawn, and until such a definite and decisive proof is 



* Since the above was written I have received a very interesting letter 



from Mr. Hutcheon, Manager of the Tugnet Hatchery, in answer to enquiries 



from myself as follows : 



" Dear Sir, The salmon which you refer to was kept in the rearing 

 ponds, and was a male fish. He was two feet long and weighed 

 four-and-a-half pounds when at his best. He spawned twice to my 

 knowledge, and might have done so a third time, as I have seen milt 

 running from parr two years old. During the time I had him, he 

 began to change his colour about the months of August and September, 

 and got very dark red about the months of March and April. He 

 again changed his colour and got quite clear, as bright as though he 

 had come from the sea. 



" I had another fish a female which I kept five years. When 

 she was three years old, I took the ova from her in the month of 

 January, but as I had not a male fish at the time it was lost. Next 

 season I spawned her and impregnated the ova with a male fish of 

 forty pounds, laid the ova in the hatchery, and it hatched out all right, 

 the only difference being that the ova was white instead of red. 



" During the alevin stage there was no difference from the rest 



alongside them in the rearing ponds. I took them down to the 



hatchery and fed them, when they were turned out into the river." 



The above letter is important, for it proves that a male fish will vent its 



milt when unaccompanied by a hen fish, and that this condition is even 



noticed in the parr before it has visited salt water. 



With regard to the hen fish, this corroborates the other well-known incident 



which occurred I think at Plymouth, but in neither case do these instances 



prove that either a male or a hen fish will spawn naturally, and from sexual 



inducement, on more than one occasion. 



