238 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



THE CANADIAN TEOUT. SEA TEOUT. 



Salmo Canadensis : HAMILTON SMITH. 



With a view of correcting an error which prevails in regard 

 to this fish, I have adopted the specific name above. It 

 is improperly referred by Mr. Perley to /Salmo trutta, an 

 European species found in the rivers of Scotland and Ireland, 

 and known there as the Salmon Trout, Sea Trout, or White 

 Trout. As no scientific description of the Canadian Trout 

 has yet been published, I have deemed it a matter of sufficient 

 importance to give an account of its specific characteristics, 

 comparing it with the European fish and the Brook Trout 

 of America. 



Griffith, in his "Animal Kingdom 1 ' (Vol. X., p. 474), in 

 alluding to a beautifully colored, though not correct drawing, 

 found on a preceding page of the same volume, says : " Our 

 figure of Salmo Canadensis was drawn by Colonel Hamilton 

 Smith from a living specimen taken in Canada ; it is beauti- 

 fully dotted with blood-red in white circular spots." This is 

 all that this naturalist says of it. Mr. Perley, in his letter to 

 Frank Forester (see "Fish and Fishing," page 122), gives 

 none of the specific characteristics of this fish ; even his 

 account of its habits and general appearance would not 

 warrant his referring it to the same species as the Sea Trout 

 of Scotland, for he implies when comparing it with the Brook 

 Trout (S. fontinalis), that the Canadian Trout has red spots, 

 which S. trutta never has, but on the contrary dark irregular 

 markings, as Yarrell says, " somewhat resembling the letter 



