THE FISHES OF THE FRITH OF FORTH. I55 



young salmon is black at the end, and measures one-sixth of the length of the 

 body. 



The dorsal fin of the parr is situated nearer to the base of the middle caudal 

 rays than to the tip of the upper jaw. In the young salmon the dorsal fin is 

 placed exactly half way between the point of the upper jaw, and the base of 

 the middle caudal rays. 



In the parr the csecal appendages are never more than forty-five in number. 

 In the salmon they always exceed fifty-seven. 



It is supposed by most fishermen, that the blue bands which are observed on 

 the sides of the parr, and the black spot on the operculum, are peculiar to that 

 fish ; but the same kind of mark is also observed in the young salmon, the sea- 

 trout, the bull-trout, and the common fresh- water trout. 



The parr of eight inches in length differs from the sea-trout of equal size, in 

 the same respects as it does from the young salmon, excepting in the number of 

 csedal appendages and the colour of the pectoral fin. (See Plate VIII.) 



The parr is distinguished from the common fresh- water trout {Salmofario) 

 by the middle ray of the tail being less than half the length of the longest ray 

 of the same fin ; the middle ray of the tail in the trout being more than half as 

 long as the longest ray of that fin. (See Plate VIII.) 



The pan- is considered by some authors to be a migratory species, and " as 

 . soon as they have spawned, they retire, like the salmon, to the sea, where they 

 remain till the autumn, when they again return to the rivers."* 



As the parr has never yet been found in salt-water, I am inclined to suppose 

 it to be a fresh- water species, remaining, like the common trout {Salmofario), in 

 Our rivers throughout the year. 



The natural history of the parr is stUl involved in great obscm*ity ; nor is 

 this difficulty, any more than the multitude of unsettled points in science, to be 

 cleared up by mere conjecture or hypotheses, but by the slow accumulation of 

 facts, and the unsparing correction of error. 



Salmo fario, Yarrell. — Common Fresh- water Trout. Tail sinuous, and at 

 length even at the end, its middle ray more than half as long as the longest ray 

 of the same fin. The summit of the four anterior dorsal and anal rays, white, 

 with a black band beneath. Common in the neighbouring streams. (See Plate 

 VIII.) 



Sahno umbla, Yarr. — Charr. Occasionally taken in Lochleven. 



Osmerus eperlanus, Yarr. — Smelt. Common at Alloa. 



Clupea harengus, Parnell, Zool. and Bot. Mag. vol. i. p. 54. — Herring. Com- 

 mon. 



* Yarrell's British Fishes, vol. ii. 



