PARR AND SMOLTS loi 



being of a pronounced blue on the back shading to pure white on the 

 under parts. The scales come off very freely and adhere to the hand 

 when the fish is grasped. The fins are delicate and the tail is deeply 

 forked. The tail is of a peculiarly rich black, the pectorals are a dusky 

 grey colour, and the dorsal fin is unspotted. The black spots on the 

 body are ' hardly discernible, but the distinctive spots on the cheeks 

 remain. The crimson spots may sometimes still be seen here and 

 there along the lateral line. Otherwise all the parr markings are 

 concealed beneath the smolt dress of silver. 



The sea-trout smolt in the main resembles the salmon smolt, being 

 like it in general colour, blue-backed and white-bellied, with the same 

 glistening silvery scales easily detachable. The distinctions between 

 the two fish chiefly lie, first, in the relative size which in the sea-trout 

 may be as much as ten inches ; second, in the colour of the sea-trout's 

 fins — especially the pectorals — which are often of a rich yellow; thirdly, 

 its dorsal fin is usually spotted, and, fourthly, the black spots of the 

 body, and sometimes the red spots along the lateral line, are more 

 conspicuous than in the salmon smolt. 



When the silvery scales are scraped off the distinctive parr markings 

 of both fish are clearly seen on the skin beneath. It may interest the 

 reader to see a coloured presentment, as I give it in Plate VII, of (i) a 

 voung salmon in the transition stage between the parr and the smolt, 

 (2) the smolt in full sea-going dress, and (3) a smolt with the silvery 

 scales partially removed. The idea of this drawing is of course not 

 original. In Scrope's " Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing in the 

 Tweed " (" The Sportsman's Library," edited by the Right Hon. Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell, Bart., i8q8), there is a coloured frontispiece of a 

 salmon smolt with the silvery scales partially removed to disclose the 

 parr marks. Mr. Malloch, too, has adopted this method of showing 

 the smolt dress in some of his excellent photographic illustrations. 



I think it is of Interest to note that the more prominent of the black 



