86 FISH AND FISHING IN SCOTLAND. 



is. Many facts still remain wholly unexplained in the history 

 of the parr ; I shall here state those which have come within my 

 own knowledge. 



The parr, under a variety of names, is found in most of the 

 rivers of Great Britain, Ireland, and perhaps also of France and 

 Germany, frequented "by salmon. It seldom exceeds nine inches 

 in length. The parr-trout, and the young of salmon, and of sea 

 trout, are often mistaken for the parr. 



In its dentition it resembles the trout, having maxillary, 

 intermaxillary, mandibular, lingual, palatine, and vomerine teeth. 

 These last are in two interrupted or alternating rows, as in the 

 trout ; they are scarcely so numerous, and occasionally they 

 show a disposition to carry transverse teeth on the forepart 

 (chevron) of the vomer, which no true trout does. In this, and 

 in its silvery scales and bluish tinge, it shows its partly salmon 

 parentage. 



In the parr the spleen is oval and small, triangular in the trout 

 of the same size, and somewhat larger : it is triangular also in 

 the salmon and sea trout. 



Parr may be taken during every month of the year in the 

 tributaries and streams which form the sources of the Tweed. 

 They are found throughout the year in the Annan and its 

 feeders. If the view I take of the smolt or salmon-fry be cor- 

 rect, namely, that on quitting the gravel they do not remain 

 longer than from three to five weeks in the fresh-water rivers, 

 then the parr cannot be the same as that fry, since they are 

 found at all times of the year in the rivers and streams. But if 

 incorrect, the fry might be found in the rivers, imperfectly 

 developed, and resembling parr and trout in their habits and 

 external and internal characters. Let us now consider this first 

 point : let us suppose that young salmon may really remain in 

 the rivers, in one form or another, from about the beginning of 

 April of one year to the beginning of May of the year following, 

 should we expect to find, in any pure species of fish, a phenomenon 

 so extraordinary as the development of the milt, in a great 

 majority of cases, at times of the year when the fully grown fish 

 shows no such state, the roe of the female in the meantime 

 remaining uniformly at its minimum ? 



