OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 85 



banded "parr," silvery "smolts," and half-grown "grilse," 

 may be advantageously studied in the spirit series forming 

 the Day Collection. A singular circumstance connected 

 with the Salmon, and pertaining also to other members of 

 its tribe, is the fact that the males may become sexually 

 mature, have their milts fully developed, and fecundate the 

 eggs of the female when not advanced beyond the " parr " 

 stage, and measuring only five or six inches in length. 

 Examples of such precociously developed Salmon were in 

 March of the present year, 1883, sent to the writer by Sir 

 Edmund Buckley from his estate at Dinas Mawddwy, North 

 Wales, and who informed him that it is in that neighbour- 

 hood regarded as a distinct species, locally known as the 

 " Samlet," and held to be distinct from the ordinary parr. 

 In support of this view, females of this early " parr " stage 

 with matured ovaries are likewise reported to have been 

 taken, but no well authenticated instances of such an 

 abnormal development are as yet on record. 



The marine and estuary-frequenting Salmon-trout, 

 Salmon-peal, or Sea-trout {Salmo trutta), No. 144, includes 

 two well-marked varieties, the so-called White Salmon 

 "Whitling," or Hirling, the ^. albas of many writers, 

 and the Welsh and Cornish forms, locally known as the 

 " Sewin " Blue-poll, or Bull-trout, distinguished by earlier 

 ichthyologists by the titles of 6". cambricus and S. 

 eriox. As ably demonstrated in Dr. Francis Day's 

 ' Fishes of Great Britain,' which all interested in the 

 history and affinities of the Salmonidse should consult, 

 this species passes by imperceptible gradations into the 

 purely fluviatile river Trout (S. fario), No. 146, with 

 its varieties too abundant for enumeration in this brief 

 handbook, and likewise, there is good reason to believe, 

 into the famous non-migratory Loch Leven Trout {Salmo 



