Mr. W. Thompson’s Notes on British Char. 441 
species, and likewise the S. alpinus and 8. Salvelinus of Do- 
noyan’s British Fishes*. On thus finding that a small loch 
produced the two supposed species, and that the examples 
were of different sexes, | endeavoured to procure a number of 
individuals for the purpose of ascertaining if the difference 
were sexual; but this fish is taken during so short a period, 
that in this object I was disappointed for that year. Ina 
letter upon the subject from James Stewart, Esq., of Cairns- 
mere, Newtown-Stewart (Wigtonshire), to Capt. Fayrer, 
dated Nov. 1, 1836, it was observed—* I lost no time in des~ 
patching my men early yesterday morning to Loch Gran- 
noch, though I must confess with very slight hopes of suc- 
cess in the object of their pursuit. The Char are never found 
in our lakes before about the 13th October, and in ten days 
again they disappear—the whole produce of the day’s exer- 
tions amounted only to four very small fish.” These were not 
considered worth sending forward. The object of the inquiry 
being made known to this gentleman, he at the same time 
remarked—“ If my evidence is worth anything, I can give it 
with great confidence as to the Red Char [S8. Salvelinus, Don.] 
being the male, and the Gray the female [S. alpinus, Don.]| of 
the same species. I have noticed them frequently, when taken 
out of the water, eject the milt and roe, and never saw the 
former from a gray, or the latter from a red fish.” I subse- 
quently availed myself of Mr. Stewart’s kindness in offering 
to procure specimens. On the 17th of October, 1838, “a 
dozen of the red and the same number of the gray fish,” caught 
late that day in Loch Grannoch, were sent me by this gen- 
tleman, and being packed with great care, reached Belfast in 
excellent condition for examination on the morning of the 
20th—the following observations were then made upon them. 
These two dozen specimens—of the full size produced in 
this lake—are all from 7 to 8 inches in length, and the fe- 
males generally somewhat shorter than the males. The dif- 
ference in form between the sexes (as proved by dissection), 
both generally and particularly, is very great. The dorsal and 
ventral profile of the male fish are alike, the slope being si- 
milar from head to tail above and below: the female has the 
dorsal line much straighter, and the ventral much more con- 
vex than the male—a difference to be expected at the spawn- 
ing season, and which would be less conspicuous at other 
times. The lower jaw of some of the males is slightly turned 
* At the Meeting of the British Association held at Newcastle in 1838, 
the two examples from Loch Grannoch were shown to my friends Mr. Yar- 
rell and Mr, Jenyns, both of whom looked upon them as representing their 
two species. 
