BROWN AND RAINBOW TROUT 27 



trout and that of a charr. The brown trout has teeth 

 in no uncertain quantity or degree of penetration on 

 the front of the bone in the roof of the mouth. These 

 are lacking in the charr. It should be said also that 

 the presence of this efficient dental weapon at once 

 marks the brown trout as a fish killer. 



A good many years ago I caught my first brown 

 trout, a rather small specimen, and although at the 



. time I did not know the exact nature of 

 Coloration. the fish> it wag eyident at once that it 



was no very close relative of our common trout simply 

 because the fish had very appreciable scales. The scales 

 of our native trout, although they exist, are micro- 

 scopic. Those of the brown trout are easily seen. The 

 coloration of the brown trout is quite different from 

 that of any other trout either native, rainbow, or any 

 of the Western species. The color scheme is best 

 described by William C. Harris, as follows: 



"The brown trout is, in American waters, rather 

 slimmer in build than our American red-spotted trout, 

 with a larger and more pointed head. The back is 

 dark green covered with well-defined black spots, and 

 the dorsal fin has both black and bright red or ver- 

 milion spots ; the adipose, or fatty fin, is also beautifully 

 decorated with three red spots. Below the lateral line 

 the coloration is of a yellowish cast with a greenish sil- 

 very background. The tail, or caudal fin, is square, and 

 on its edges there is a reddish stripe; the other fins are 

 orange in color, the ventral and anal having a white 

 stripe on the under edge shaded with deep orange; the 

 head, the under part of which is yellow, and the gill 



