Tf)e Canadian R^ed Troat 



By JOHN W. TITCOMB. 



THE red trout are found in Lake Saccacomi and three "Red Lakes" adjacent 

 to Saccacomi, all in the township of St. Alexis, Maskinonge County, Province 

 of Quebec. These four lakes all contain the brook trout, S. fontinalis, and in 

 Saccacomi the brook trout attains a weight of five or six pounds. \\\ two of the 

 Red Lakes there are also found the yellow perch (not an unusual thing for trout 

 lakes in the Province of Quebec). Lake Saccacomi is not connected with the Red 

 Lakes, although from the topograph^' it might have been connected in some ear- 

 lier age. The Red Lakes are all connected and flow in a different direction from 

 Saccacomi. 



Red trout is the local name and as the ichthyologists have not had sufficient 

 specimens of similar fish from other waters for thorough comparison, no other name 

 has as yet been given to them. Evermann says the red trout bears a close resem- 

 blance to the Salvclinns mireoliis, from Little Averill Pond, Vt., and mircolus from 

 Flood's Pond, Maine, and may be identical with Garman's S. viarstoni. It has also 

 been pronounced identical with a " red trout " from Decalonnes Township, Quebec, 

 and with the aureolus of Sunapee Lake, N. H. 



I find, however, that the S. ain-coliis, of Sunapee, N. H., and of Averill, Vt., has 

 a square tail like the 5. fontinalis, while the red trout of which I write has a dis- 

 tinctly forked tail.'^ The casual observer, in seeing the aureohts of Averill, Vt., and 

 the Canadian red trout exhibited side by side as they appeared at the Pan-American 

 Exposition, would inquire where the difference between the two fish appeared. 

 The coloring and shape are identical with the exception as to the tail. The same 

 brilliant hues appear upon both fish during the nuptial season also. As seen in the 

 aquaria at Buffalo both varieties were beautiful, but it is impossible for one who has 

 not seen it to imagine the great change in coloring as witnessed during the approach 

 of the spawning season and for some weeks after its expiration. 



The colored plates f of this fish are good general representations of the shape and 

 general coloring describing the two sexes during the nuptial season. The spots on 



* S. aureolus has the caudal fin emarginate at all ages. — Editor. 



f See Fifth Annual Report. The plate of the red trout marked " Young " should read "Adult Female." 

 23 353 



