232 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



8. fontinalis, or the American char, has likewise been added to the British fish 

 fauna, having been introduced and being now extensively distributed throughout 

 the country, but with varying success, as will be alluded to. 



Up to 1866 Pennant, Agassiz, Yarrell, and White only admitted one form of 

 char as British, while Donovan, Turton, Fleming, and Jenyns believed in two. 

 Giinther increased them to six, subsequently 8. struanensis was added, and the 

 American char widely propagated. 



Widegren (1864) asserted that in Scandinavia there existed two races of char, 

 the larger being found in Lapland, Lake Wetter, and other lakes; while the 

 smaller was present in pieces of water of less size, as those of Jemtland, 

 Wermland, Smaland and Norway.* These two races he held to be simply 

 modifications of one species, 8almo alpmus, the seebling of South Germany, of 

 which 8. vmibla is a synonym. Holding these opinions, which were identical with 

 those of Agassiz and others, he entered his protest against the validity of 

 Dr. Giinther's new species, which he deemed as merely so many additions to the 

 synonymy of 8. alpinm. Collett, Norges Fishe (1875), considered all the char 

 pertained to one form, so also did Malm, while Moreau, in his Fishes of France 

 (1881), arrived at the conclusion that all the chars of that country were a single 

 form, 8. uvibla, which he considered identical with 8. salvelinus. 



In the Zoological Record of 1864, Dr. Giinther disputed the possibility of the 

 size of the teeth having any bearing on the food these fish consume, maintaining 

 that such may even be a reason towards instituting a species. However, in the 

 artificial rearing of Salmonoids it has been found that some young do take on 

 cannibal propensities, and are furnished with larger teeth than their neighbours. 

 Referring to the size of the eggs, I have already shown (pp. 24, 25, 228) that 

 such may depend on the age of the fish, and other circumstances. 



There appears to have been three different main reasons for dividing the 

 British chars into several species, their colour, the number of their vertebrae, and 

 also of their csecal appendages. 



The colours in the British char do not vary to so great an extent as in the 

 trout, owing to their residing in deeper waters and usually merely ascending 

 towards the surface at night-time to feed, while other changes in tint are consequent 

 upon the breeding season. In the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and 

 Lancashire, observed Jenyns, this fish in its ordinary state is the case char of 

 Pennant; when exhibiting the bright crimson belly which it assumes before 

 spawning, it is called the red char ; when out of season, the spawn having been 

 shed, it is distinguished by the name of the gilt char. Thompson remarked that 

 he had examined in a fresh state char from Windermere, from Loch Grannock 

 (Scotland), and Lough Melvin (Ireland), and preserved in spirits or dry from nine 

 other lakes in Scotland or Ireland. Examinations of these had led him to 

 believe that there existed but one species : which, however, like the Salmo 

 fario is subject to extraordinary variations. In one lake he observed that the 

 male fish can at a glance be distinguished from the female either by colour or 

 by the many characters which are comprised under "form." In another, so 

 similar are the sexes in every external character, that without the aid of dissec- 

 tion they cannot be determined. In size we find the species ordinarily attain 

 twice the length and several times the weight 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 pools in comparison ; there are, however, various influences, as seen 

 in trout, -which account satisfactorily for such differences. In the form of the 



fly of the angler freely, the other — that of Windermere — ^is seldom caught except by trolling with 

 the minnow." 



Dr. Giinther (1866), as in the Salmonee so in the Salvelini, largely augmented the number 

 of what he considered British species, although he rejected S. umbla and S. salvelinus as British 

 forms. He gave (1) S. alpinus, vertebra 59-62, cscal appendages 36-42 ; (2) S. Ullinemis, vert. 

 62, osec. pyl. 44-52 ; (3) S. Willoughbii, vert. 56-62, caic. pyl. 32-44 ; (4) 5. perisii, vert. 61, ctBC. 

 pyl. 36 ; (5) 5. grayi, vert. 60, oseo. pyl. 37 ; (6) S. colii, vert. 68, oceo. pyl. 42. 



Sir J. Gibson-Maitland (1881) added S. struanensis, osecal pyl. 28. 



* For contrary views, as observed in Ireland, see Thompson's remarks. 



