Salmonide 69 
characters given below. Other differences of form, color, and 
appearance are absolutely valueless for distinction, unless speci- 
mens of the same age, sex, and condition are compared. 
The quinnat salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha),* called 
quinnat, tyee, chinook, or king-salmon, has an average weight 
of 22 pounds, but individuals weighing 70 to 100 pounds are 
occasionally taken. It has about 16 anal rays, 15 to 19 branchi- 
ostegals, 23 (9+14) gillrakers on the anterior gill-arch, and 
140 to 185 pyloric coeca. The scales are comparatively large, 
there being from 130 to 155 in a longitudinal series. In the 
spring the body is silvery, the back, dorsal fin, and caudal fin 
having more or less of round black spots, and the sides of the 
head having a peculiar tin-colored metallic luster. In the fall 
Fig. 53.—Quinnat Salmon (female), Oncorhynchus tschawytscha (Walbaum). 
Columbia River. 
the color is often black or dirty red, and the species can then 
be distinguished from the dog-salmon by its larger size and by 
its technical characters. The flesh is rich and salmon-red, 
becoming suddenly pale as the spawning season draws near. 
The blue-back salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka),t also called 
red salmon, sukkegh, or sockeye, usually weighs from 5 to 8 
pounds. It has about 14 developed anal rays, 14 branchioste- 
* For valuable accounts of the habits of this species the reader is referred 
to papers by the late Cloudsley Rutter, ichthyologist of the Albatross, 
in the publications of the United States Fish Commission, the Popular 
Science Monthly, and the Overland Monthly. 
{For valuable records of the natural history of this species the reader 
is referred to various papers by Dr. Barton Warren Evermann in the Bulletins 
of the United States Fish Commission and elsewhere. 
