886 FISHES — SALMONID^. 



Genus 50. 0SC0RHYNCHU3. Suckley. 



Oncorhynchus, Sucklby, Ann. Ljc. Nat. Hist. N. Y,, 1S71, 312. 

 Type, Salmo scouleri, Rich., Snckley, =: Salmo kisutsh, Walbanm, not Salmo soouleri, 



Richardson, which is Salmo goriuscha, Walbaum. 

 Etymology, oglcos, hook ; rvgkos, snout. 



Body elongate, sabfusiform or compressed; mouth wide, the maxillary long, lanceo- 

 late, usually extending beyond the eye ; jaws with moderate teeth, which become in the 

 adu'.t male enormously enlarged in front ; vomer long and narrow, flat, with a series of 

 teeth both on the head and the shaft, the latter series comparatively short and weak ; 

 palatine with teeth ; tongue with a marginal series on each side ; teeth on vomer and 

 tongue often lost with age ; no teeth on the hyoid bone ; branchiostegala more or less 

 increased in number ; scales moderate or small ; dorsal fin moderate ; anal fin compara- 

 tively elongate, ol 14-20 rays; pyloric appendages in increased number; gill-rakers 

 rather numerous ; ova large ; sexual peculiarities (in typical species) very strongly 

 developed ; the snout in the adaltmales greatly distorted ; the premaxillaries prolonged, 

 hooking over the lower jaw, which in turn is greatly prolonged and somewhat hooked 

 at tip ; the teeth of these bones also greatly enlarged ; a fleshy hump is developed 

 before the dorsal -fin, and the scales of the back become imbedded in the flesh. Salmon, 

 mostly of large s'ze, ascending the rivers tributary to the North Pacific in North- 

 America and Asia, now being introduced into Atlantic waters. The genus includes the 

 largest of the Salmon family, and the noblest of our food fishes. One of the five known 

 species has been introduced into varioas eastern streams and lakes, 



99. OjSCObhynchds chotjicha (Walbaum) Jordan and Gilbert. 



Quinnat Salmon; King^ Salmon; Cliouicha; Columbia Salmon; 

 Cliinnook Salmon; Saw-kwey; Spring Salmon ; Sacramento 

 Salmon. 



Salmon ishawylsclia (Chouiclia), Walbaum, Aitedi Pise, 1792, — . 



Salmo orientalia, Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat., iii, 1811. 



Salmo quinnat, Kichaedson, Fauna Bor.-Amer., iii, 1836, 319, and of most late writers. 



Oncorhynchus quinnat, Gunthbk, Cat. Fishes Brit. Mus. vi, 158. — Jordan, Proc. U. S. 



Nat. Mus,, i, 69. 

 Salvia quinnat, covfluenlua, and argyreus, Sucklky, Monogr. Salmo,, 105, 109, 110. 



Deacriplion. — Color dusky above, often tinged with olivaceous or bluish; sides and 

 below silvery ; head dark slaty, with metallic lustre, usually darker than the body and 

 little spotted ; back, dorsal fin, and tail usually profusely covered with round black 

 spots; these are sometimes very few, but very rarely altogether wanting; tail with a 

 peculiar metallic silvery pigment ; male about the spawning season (October) blackish, 

 more or less tinged or blotched with dull red ; head conic, rather pointed in the females 

 and spring males; jaws not emarginate either in front or on sides; maxillary rather 

 slender, the small eye rather behind its middle ; teeth small, longer on sides of lower 

 jaw than in front; vomerine teeth very few and weak, disappearing with age; in 

 the males in late summer and fall the jaws become elongate and distorted, and the an- 

 terior teeth mnch enlarged, as in the related species ; the body then becomes deeper, 

 more compressed, and arched at the shoulders ; preoperole very convex ; opercle strongly 

 convex ; body comparatively robust, its depth greatest near its middle ; ventrals in- 

 serted behind middle of dorsal, ventral appendage half the length of the fin ; caudal, as 



