THE SALMONID. 449 
has fifteen or sixteen anal rays. The Salmo salar Linn. 
sometimes weighs eighty pounds. It is common to Europe 
as well as Northeastern 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 very 
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 smolt; 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 trout, Salmo (Salvelinus) fontinalis Gill and 
Fig. 404.—The Smelt— Osmerus mordaw—onc half natural size.—From the Amer- 
écan Naturalist. 
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 eper- 
danus Linn., and QO. mordax Mitchill, which live on both 
sides of the Atlantic, and range from Nova Scotia to Vir- 
ginia. The capelin, Mallotus villosus 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 Salmonide is the family Galazxiide, represented by 
Galaxias and Neochanna (Fig. 413), in the latter of which 
the ventral fins are absent. 
