CHAR 95 



or a little less than one-fourth of the length of the 

 head, and the interorbital region is narrow and flat, 

 not much wider than the diameter of the eye. 



The rather long head (length one-fourth or more 

 than one-fourth of the length of the fish) and the 

 elevated dorsal fin, the longest ray of which 

 measures three-fourths the length of the head in the 

 males and a little less in the female, are also 

 notable features. The scales in a longitudinal 

 series number 158 to 1 80, and there are eight or 

 nine branched rays in the dorsal fin, whereas the 

 Killin Char, the next to be described, usually has 

 ten or eleven. 



This species was first described in 1881 by Sir 

 John Gibson-Maitland, who netted over a score of 

 them one day in September of that year, when they 

 were about to spawn. According to his account 

 their coloration is beautiful : above the lateral line, 

 black shot with metallic blue, and below it, claret 

 coloured, shaded with steel blue ; spots, salmon 

 colour, indistinct, about twenty above the lateral 

 line and sixty on or below it ; parr-marks visible ; 

 dorsal fin without spots, with a black marginal 

 band ; caudal with a broad dark marginal band ; 

 anal, greyish, darker below, with a white anterior 

 edge ; pectoral, claret coloured. 



All the examples captured had their stomachs 

 immensely distended with water-fleas (Daphnia 

 pulex)\ their average length was 8J inches, and the 

 average weight 3 ounces. 



From the structure of the mouth one would 

 suppose that the Struan Char is a bottom feeder ; 

 the size of the eye also suggests that this species 

 lives at considerable depths, and we know that for 



