THE FRY STAGE 87 



coldest period of mid-winter that there will be any prolonged cessation 

 from feeding. At any rate, the fish in the streams feed less because 

 there is less to feed on. Here, perhaps, the "reading" of a scale, as it is 

 technically called, may serve to confirm what is stated in the text as the 

 result of more general observation. The nucleus of the scale becomes 

 first visible to the eye some little time after the alevin has wholly 

 absorbed the umbilical sac. It is now of course generally known that 

 the scales are not annually shed, but that, growing with the growth of 

 the fish, they — besides other changes — add each season a series of rings 

 to their circumference. It will be necessary to point to the condition 

 of the scales at various stages in the sea-trout's growth, and here it is 

 appropriate to state that the rings of growth acquired during the winter 

 between the first summer and the second summer of the fish's life are set 

 more closely together than the rings acquired during each successive 

 summer with the effect of forming a sort of band, or ring, of demarcation. 

 This points to the two inferences that the salmon parr feeds hardly at all 

 in winter and that it practically ceases to grow during the winter months, 

 but it hardly bears out Mr. Malloch's statement that the fish grows 

 " smaller," else there would be no " band " or series of winter rings, but 

 only one ring marking shrinkage of the body and disintegration of the 

 scale. But when it is pointed out that the winter band in the sea-trout 

 scale (and in the trout scale also) is seldom so clearly defined as in the 

 salmon scale, one may infer that sea-trout parr tend to feed with more 

 freedom during the winter months than salmon parr, a fact which helps 

 to account for the sea-trout's proportionately quicker growth than the 

 salmon during the period of residence of both fish in fresh water. 



It is worth while noticing these facts as to the sea-trout scales now, 

 at their earliest manifestation, because throughout the life of the fish 

 the scale rings of summer and winter growth may, as in the salmon 

 scale, be differentiated and distinguished. 



It is not my purpose here to describe the general theory and practical 



