SALMONID^. 8? 



of the fry were retained in a fresh water pond, bred there, and one of these 

 examples, which exceeded 18 inches in length, was received at the British 

 Museum in April, 1874. Its external appearance was similar to the typical 

 Salmo trutta, but internally it possessed only 36 ccecal appendages, demonstrating 

 that either S. trutta may possess less than 43, or that S. cambricus may externally 

 develop into 8. trutta, or lastly, that 8. albus may have a preoperculum with a 

 distinct lower limb. 



It seems evident that the external form and number of coecal appendages 

 are insufficient to discriminate it from the salmon-trout, and I now arrive at 

 the consideration whether it can or cannot be distinctly differentiated from the 

 brook- trout, a subject already adverted to (page 83). A fine series from Wales, 

 in the national collection, shows an unbroken series in external form, in colour, 

 and in dentition between the two, and asserted to be hybrids.* Other specimens 

 from Copenhagen are likewise present. The number of coecal appendages in 

 these forms were found to be from 41 to 46. They are said to be locally known 

 as Twh-y-dail or " fall of the leaf," indicative of their colour, but in Owen's 

 "Welsh Dictionary I find this local term employed for the chub, Leuciscus cephalus. 

 And finally, it may be repeated that breeding the two forms together does not 

 produce sterile hybrids but fertile varieties. 



In 1879 a correspondence commenced respecting the hlue poll and blue cock 

 of the Fowey in Cornwall, Salmo cainbricus, they are also termed Gandlemass fish, 

 and are sold in Billingsgate as " Cornish salmon." Some which used to be taken 

 at the beginning of the year were said to have been unmended kelts, while an 

 example sent from that river in December, 1879, to Mr. Frank Buckland, proved 

 to be a male with the milt fully developed and ready for extrusion. In a 

 memorial from fishermen and others at or near the Fowey to the conservators, it 

 is stated that these fish ascend the river from " September to Christmas in accord- 

 ance with their natural habits," and although bearing spawn it was suggested 

 that the fishermen ought to be allowed to capture them during the close seasonf 

 because spawning sea fish are not protected, and that it is only at this period 

 that the fishing could be successfully prosecuted. Leave was requested that this 

 petition should be granted, but was very properly refused. In the Towy, in 

 Wales, the same variety termed Salmon glasbach, " little blue salmon," largely 

 ascend for the purpose of spawning in the last week in January and the first half 

 of February, and we are told that thirty years ago, prior to the re-institution of a 

 close season, all the males were crimped and sent to the Severn district as a clean 

 run fish, while the females were dispatched there as they were. 



In the British Museum are other examples from the Lossie river and Moray 

 Firth on the Scotch coast, passing from the typical salmon-trout by a graduated 

 series into the river- trout : they are also recorded as hybrids. 



Pamcll, under Sahno eriox, comprised in the Wernerian Memoirs the following 

 varieties found in the Firth of Forth. Salmon spotted bull-trout, plate xxxiii, f. 4 : 

 few spotted bull-trout, plate xxxiii, f. 5 : thichl:/ spotted bull-trout, plate xxxiii, 

 f, 6: large headed bull-trout, plate xxxiii, f. 7: curved spotted bull-trout, plate 

 xxxiii, f. 8 : salmon bull-trout, plate xxxiii* : crescent-tailed bull-trout, plate xxxiv, 

 f. 9 : Norway bull-trout, plate xxxiv, f. 10. While under Salmo trutta he gave 



• Although hybrids among the salmonidoe had been observed as existing from the time of 

 Willughby, edited by Ray (1686), Dr. Giiather remarks, "no instance had been clearly made out 

 until we were enabled, through the liberality of the Rev. Augustus Morgan, to conyince ourselves of 

 the existence of a hybrid between the sewiu (S. cambricus) and the river-trout (S. faric) " (Catal. vi, 

 p. 8). Further on he continues " we have never had an opportunity of observing a naturally sterile 

 individual " (p. 47). 



t In the Coquet, H.M. Inspectors of Fisheries were led to believe that the bull-trout only or 

 mostly ascended during the close season, and that they were destroying the breed of the salmon. 

 Elsewhere we are told they get first to the spawning beds ousting the Salmo salar. So in 1868 

 leave was given by the Home Office to fish during the close months. In four years 61,689 bull- 

 trout were captured, and in each of the four years as follows: 26,350, 15,464, 10,687, and 9188. 

 Destroying this form is said to have been a failure, but the result of such a license is evident, for in 

 the first year nearly half tlie entire captures for the four years occurred, the takes annually decreasing 

 until the fourth year, the last that Buckland recorded. 



