160 MALACOPTEUYGII. 



stomach, which I saw, was muscular like a Gillaroo's. I saw him open 

 three fresh Gillaroos from Lough Melvin (County Fermanagh) about 10 

 inches long. They resembled Sahno Fario in its ordinary state ; one was 

 filled with caddis-wonns, the cases of Avhich were covered only Avith par- 

 ticles of stone. Their stomachs Avere hard and muscular, in which Gilla- 

 roos I saw Valrata ohtusa, Paludina iinpiira, Lynmeus 2>erege7; which were 

 obtained from the stomach of one Gillaroo. 



The Chak, Sahno JJmhla, Linn., 



— Salvelimis, Don. 



In the Annals Nat. Hist. vol. vi. I published the folloAving notice of 

 this species : — 



" Having within tlie last few years, through the kindness of friends and cor- 

 respondents, been favoured with specimens of char from various localities in the 

 British Islands, I shall here give some notes made upon them. 



" It may first be mentioned, that so late as the years 1835 and 1836, when the 

 excellent volumes of Mr. Jenyns and Mr. Yarrell appeared, neither author had 

 seen any char from Ireland * or Scotland, and the original observations con- 

 tained in their respective works were necessarily limited to examples of the fish 

 from the lakes of England and Wales. In the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal 

 for January, 1835 (vol. xviii. p. 58), Sir Wm. Jardine noticed the Sahno alpinus 

 as taken by his party in Sutherlandshire. 



" The chief object of my inquiry was to learn whether, in the lakes of Ireland 

 and of those in Scotland.f from which I could procure specimens, the S. Salve- 

 Imus, Don., was to be found ; and at the same time to ascertain, at least for my 

 own satisfaction, whether its characters have sufficient permanency to entitle it 

 to rank as a distinct species. As they are merely crude unfinished notes that 

 are to follow, I shall here give the residt of the investigation, that the reader 

 may be in possession of it without enteruig into the details. In a fresh state I have 

 had the opportunity of examining char from three localities — Windermere (Eng- 

 land), Lough Melvin (Ireland), and Loch Grannoch (Scotland) ; and, either in 

 spirits or preserved dry, from nine other lakes in Ireland and Scotland. The 

 examination of these examples leads me to believe that the .S. Umbla, Linn., 

 and S. Sahelinus, Don., are but one species ; one, however, that, like the Salnio 

 Fario, is subject to extraordinary variety. In one lake the male fish can at a 

 glance be distinguished from the female either by colour or by the many cha- 

 racters which are comprised under ' form.' In another, so similar are the 

 sexes in every external character, that without the aid of dissection they cannot 

 be determined. In size we find the species ordinarily attain twice the length 

 and several times the weight J in one lake that it does in another, although the area 

 of their waters is of similar extent ; indeed, in some of the largest lakes this fish 

 will be found not to attain near the size it does in some others which are but as 

 pools in comparison — there are, however, various influences which account satis- 

 factorily for such diff"erences. In the form of the body again we find the spe- 



* When I supplied Mr. Yarrell with the published localities in Ireland for the 

 char, as noticed in his work, I had not seen any native examples of the species. 

 In the Supplement to his British Fishes (1839, p. 27) this author has ofiered 

 a few remarks on char sent him by Lord Cole from Loughs Eask and Melvin in 

 Ireland — these are considered to be examples of the .S. Vmbla, Linn., and S. 

 Salvelmus, Don. 



t The fine work of Sir Wm. Jardine on the Scottish Salmotiul(P was not at 

 the time announced. 



X That the quantity of ova produced will vary accordingly, is illustrated by 

 the difference between the number found in the Loch Grannoch and the Lough 

 Melvin fish. 



