THE GAME BREEDER 



49. 



and not much wider than half an inch 

 in very large specimens of even five 

 pounds and more. Both sexes bear this 

 mark, but it is brighter and bigger on 

 males. 



On a typical Rainbow this stripe is 

 densely red, nearly Indian red, and so 

 clearly defined that it appears as if 

 painted with one sweep of a narrow 

 paintbrush. It is not a rosy blush such 

 as we see on the side of a male Cut- 

 throat, but a dense, livid, narrow bar. 

 This mark is more brilliant at the be- 

 ginning of the mating season, and grows 

 misty and faint after spawning. I think 

 this mark is more pronounced on Rain- 

 bows of waters east of the Cascades. 

 Certainly no such vivid band is seen on 

 Clark or Mason or Dolly Varden trout, 

 nor ever on the Steelhead of my ac- 

 quaintance. On any but the Rainbow, 

 where a rosy or purple tint is seen on 

 the sides of the trout it is a thin, trans- 

 parent tint, extending over more than 

 half the side of the fish vertically. In 

 the Rainbow typically marked the stripe 

 is vivid, dense in color, sharply defined 

 — not shading faintly away into the gen- 

 eral color as it does in other species — 

 and is a narrow stripe, not more than 

 one-sixth the width of the side. 



There seems to be no good reason for 

 naming this fish "Rainbow," but it is a 

 splendid name. In no trait save the red 

 side does he resemble the bow of heaven 

 more than his fellows; and the stripe 

 instead of being seven-hued is one bright, 

 dense, bricky red. A trout so marked 

 is certain to have all the other traits 

 of the Rainbow and to be no more 

 readily mistaken for any other species 

 than a carp for a salmon. 



But not all Rainbow are thus distin- 

 guishable. Until two years old, when 

 they first spawn, all the family are much 

 less vividly marked, and may be readily 

 mistaken for Clark trout when the lat- 

 ter are adult and in spawning dress, 

 when the male Clark or Cutthroat trout 

 has the wide, faint, rosy sheen which 

 then appears. 



Old males of the Irideus or Rainbow 

 family frequently take on livid, blotchy 

 colors and the whole fish is sometimes as 

 red as a spent dog salmon. 



From an Angler's Diary these notes 

 will help to fix the "stripe" feature. The 

 reader will observe that one lot of fish 

 is from Blue mountain waters and the 

 other from Cascades. 



"May 28, 19—, Reuben Montgomery 

 displayed in a window a lot of fine trout 

 caught by him in the McKenzie river. 

 One was a big Dolly Varden, 28 in. long, 

 weight Syz lbs. dressed. Eight were 

 Rainbows of one to two lbs. weight. 

 The red bar on side was very striking; 

 as deep as if painted in Indian red. On 

 every fish this extended from opercle to 

 base of tail." 



"Oct. 28, 1912, Mr. Finley has fine 

 specimens of Rainbow^ caught yesterday 

 in Umatilla by C. K. Cranston. All typi- 

 cal, no doubt about them. Eight to 

 twelve inchs long. All bear distinct 

 stripe of deep red along median line 

 and a little below. In the largest this 

 stripe is half inch wider midships. It 

 begins rather narrow and fainter in color 

 at the opercle and diminishes near the 

 tail." 



Two great ichthyologists state that the 

 "Rainbow may be known by the num- 

 bers of scales in a line from head to tail, 

 which is about 120." Both say its scales 

 are larger than in the Steelhead or 

 Clark trout. 



One of these scientists is Doctor David 

 Starr Jordan. He named this trout 

 "Rainbow" in 1870, the specimen being 

 taken in San Leandro creek, near Ala- 

 meda, California, 



The description given by Doctor Jor- 

 dan of the Rainbow seems to be fol- 

 lowed implicitly by many writers, though 

 very incomplete, and even questionable. 

 The statement that "its head is larger 

 than any other Pacific trout" is open lo 

 question, the pictures illustrating the ar- 

 ticle showing the Clark trout's head to 

 be the larger of the two. Perhaps the 

 Rainbow trout of California differs from 

 ours, but two-year-old Rainbows, eight 

 to ten inches long, from Oregon waters, 

 show a considerably smaller head length 

 than Clark trout of the same size. In 

 unusually large fish of either species, es- 

 pecially breeding males, the head is dis- 

 proportionately large. 



In all under-size trout the tail is much 



