THE SALMON. 163 



river Hodder," alluded to by Mr. Yarrell, and 

 both are the produce of the preceding spring, 

 instead of being, as usually supposed, only a 

 few weeks old. They remain all summer and 

 throughout the ensuing winter in the river, and 

 are neither more nor less than those little fishes, 

 commonly called parr, which afford the young (and 

 sometimes elderly) angler so much amusement with 

 the rod, throughout the months of August, Sep- 

 tember, and October. At this stage of Mr. Shaw's 

 proceedings, then, he proved that young salmon do 

 not go down to the sea even in the spring of the first 

 year after that in which they are hatched. 



We may here briefly notice a fact in the physi- 

 cal history of the male parr, commented on by Mr. 

 Shaw though previously well known to other ob- 

 servers which if not an anomaly in nature, is at 

 least " of a strange order." In the autumn of the 

 second year they become fitted for generative pur- 

 poses, and are soon after seen to associate with the 

 adult female salmon. Specimen No. 8 of the 

 Royal Society ""s collection is a characteristic ex- 

 ample of the parr (usually so called). It was taken 

 from the pond on 14th November 1838, being then 

 18 months old ; and at the same period all the males 

 of Mr. Shawls different broods exhibited a matured 

 sexual character in relation to the milt, although 

 none of the females of the same age shewed any 

 signs of roe. Those in the natural bed of the river 

 manifested a corresponding character of maturity in 

 the male, of immaturity in the female. 



The great constitutional change which converts 



