Aethur. — Notes on some Specimens of migratory Salmonidse. 179 



young sea-trout liberated in Shag river by Mr. Young in 1871, only that the 

 ova were got by Mr. Clifford in Tasmania from the Salmon Commissioners. 

 This knowledge, though not essential to identification, would be interesting 

 and useful in observing variations if such should occur through the 

 difference of our rivers from the parent streams. And the more so if there 

 be any truth in the report which Mr. Ellis, of Merrivale, heard in Riverton 

 and communicated to me, viz., that during last summer young salmon were 

 caught in the estuary of Jacob's river, and eaten by well-known inhabitants 

 of the above town. As to this, I have to add that Mr. Howard went 

 specially to Riverton to ascertain the truth of the above report, and he has 

 assured me that he is not yet satisfied that it is so. Neither can the fact be 

 decided until the fish seen has been caught and examined by some com- 

 petent authority. 



The English salmon and sea-trout, the American salmon (Californian) 

 and the white-fish, are none of them natives of New Zealand waters, and it 

 yet remains to be seen how they will succeed and how adapt themselves to 

 our rivers. Excepting the sea-trout, we have no j^roof yet of the success of 

 any of the others, — the young fiy of all of which have been liberated in our 

 rivers or lakes, some of them years ago.* 



I will now proceed to describe certain specimens of migratory Salmonidse 

 as examined by me. With the assistance of the drawings of these fish 

 which accompany this paper, I hope my descriptions may be the more 

 readily understood. I need only add that I have made these drawings from 

 the fish themselves by accurate measurements, laid down to life-size and 

 afterwards reduced. In the case of the Sawyer's Bay S. trutta alone, the 

 fish was only a short time in my possession, so that I did not get it so accu- 

 rately delineated as the others. The head and fins, however, were retained 

 by me, and made use of in the drawing which represents them. 



Specimens examined. 



1. Salmo quinnat, a smolt seventeen months old, hatched out with many 

 others in November, 1877, at the Opoho breeding-ponds, Dunedin. It is 

 now preserved in spirits, and is in the possesion of Mr. F. Deans. It is 

 from ova obtained from California in 1877 as that of the S. qxdnnat, by the 

 Colonial Government of New Zealand, and presented to the Otago Acchma- 

 tization Society. 



General description : Colour, — iron or dark steel grey on head and back, 

 passing into silvery on sides and belly ; sides and gill-covers very silvery. 



* It may be interesting to note here that in May, 1878, several hundreds of S. salar 

 were caught running up the Connecticut river ten to fifteen pounds in weight, the result 

 of fry planted there in May, 1874. Salmon have been extinct for three-quarters of a 

 century in that river of the United States. — See report of Fish Commissioners of Canada, 

 1879, 



