22 DESCRIPTION, CLASSIFICATION, AND 



water the body-color is very iridescent, showing green and purple 

 bronze with a tint of rose. The oval spots on the back are so black 

 and run so closely together as to be hardly distinguishable when the 

 fish has been a short time out of water, but in the living fish, ob- 

 served under water in a good light, they show plainly upon the 

 olive ground-color. The head is deep black on top. The ground- 

 color of the gill-covers is a deep-green bronze, with patches of dark 

 purple and greenish and blackish bronze on the operculum, which 

 has also three or four circular black spots of varying sizes, and 

 generally one large irregular-shaped black spot on it. The lower 

 jaw and throat, to the gill, are of a leaden gray in fine dots, thickly 

 spread on a white ground. Adults are all marked on the body with 

 black spots, either irregular quadrilaterals or double X's, not the 

 single X of the Atlantic salmon. These spots do not come much 

 below the medial line, and vary a great deal in number and size in 

 individuals. They do not show on the gill-covers, tail, or dorsal 

 fin, but the latter is usually thickly covered with circular black 

 spots. 



"The coloring varies somewhat with locality, age, and season, but 

 there is no marked difference of it in the sexes, except at breeding- 

 time, when the male, as in other Salmonidce, is much brighter hued. 

 In neither sex, however, is the change so great as in Salmo solar. 

 The body-color becomes yellow or reddish, the white dirty, and the 

 spots turn to rusty purplish brown. The hooked lower jaw, loss of 

 condition, poor quality of flesh, indisposition to feed, and sluggish- 

 ness of temperament, that characterize the spawning salmon, are 

 well marked in the wananishe." 



The graceful proportions and splendid condition of 

 the adult ouananiche, found in rapid water in the 

 spring of the year, are not more remarkable than the 

 beauty of its coloring. Clothed, indeed, in purple and 

 finest silver, it undoubtedly fares sumptuously every 

 day. In its various hues it reflects every shade of its 

 natural surroundings, from the indigo-colored storm- 

 clouds to the rose tints of the setting sun, from the 

 purple haze over the distant hills to the pale-green 



