453 ZOOLOGY. 



lias fifteen or sixteen anal rays. The iSahno salar Linn, 

 sometimes weighs eighty pounds. It is common to Europe 

 as well as Xortheastern America. In the autumn the salmon 

 ascends rivers to spawn, penetrating as near the source as 

 possible. During the breeding season the males differ de- 

 cidedly from the females, in the long, slender, hooked .snout, 

 the body being thin and high-colored. The eggs are verv 

 large, exceeding a pea in size, and are laid in shallow holes 

 made in the gravel of streams. The extreme young are 

 banded and called parr ; when about a year old, and of a 

 bright silvery color, before descending the rivers to the sea, 

 it is called a srnolt ; after its return from the sea into fresh 

 water it- goes by the name of grilse; and finally, after re- 

 turning a second time from the sea, it assumes its name of 

 salmon. The tront, Sahno {SaJrelinus) foniinalis Gill and 



Fig.41-2. — The Smelt — Oi^merus rtwrdax —oai: hnU natural size. — From the Amer- 

 ican 2^aturalist. 



Jordan, also breeds in the autumn and early winter ; it is 

 not anadromous, living permanently in streams and ponds. 



An allied family embraces the smelts. Osmerus epcr- 

 luiius Linn., and 0. morda.c Mitchill, which live on both 

 sides of the Atlantic, and range from Xdva Scotia to Vir- 

 ginia. The capelin, MaUnfus riUosus Cuvier, is valuable 

 as bait in the cod fishery. It spawns in the summer. The 

 males are distinguished by a prominent lateral ridge along 

 the sides of the body and are more numerous than the 

 females. 



Belonging to the same suborder or group of families 

 as the SaJmonidce is the family Galaxiidm, represented by 

 Galaxias and Xeochanna (Fig. -ilS), in the latter of which 

 the ventral fins are absent. 



