144 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



many larger spots of venous blood- red margined with crimson. These spots are roundish, 

 stelliform, or cruciform *. There are nine or ten rows of small brown spots on the dorsal, and 

 some on the adipose fin and upper lobe of the caudal. The ridges on the top of the head, 

 visible in the dried specimen, resemble those of the Nith trout in form, but they are more 

 acutely prominent, particularly the lateral ones. The scales are broadly oval. The stomach 

 contained the larvae of insects, the remains of a fish, much sand, a bit of charcoal, and two or 

 three fragments of sand-stone. 



7. Salmo ferox. Sir William Jardine and Mr. Selby have recently given this name to 

 a northern Scottish trout, of which a specimen has been kindly transmitted to me by Mr. 

 Selby, the well-known ornithologist. It resembles the Loch Leven trout in its dentition and 

 the proportional size of the head ; there is also a resemblance, though not a perfect one, in 

 the form of the gill-cover; but the labials are much stronger and more curved, and the cra- 

 nial ridges much less prominent and acute. The most decided difference is in the form of the 

 scales, which in Salmo ferox are broadly oval, more nearly approaching to circular than in 

 any of the preceding species ; they are as thin and flexible as those of the Salmon or Salmon- 

 trout, though being more thickly covered with epidermis they are not so caducous. In colour, 

 this fish is described as resembling the Loch Leven trout, but. the spots in the specimens we 

 have seen are fewer and larger. The caudal fin is even at the end, as in the old individuals of 

 many other species of trout. The Salmo ferox inhabits Loch Awe, in Argyleshire, where it 

 attains the weight of twenty-eight pounds. It spawns on the sides or near the gorge of the 

 lake, rarely entering the feeding streams ; and although it is occasionally taken in the river 

 Awe, by which the lake discharges itself into the sea, it is said that it never attempts to reach 

 the salt water. Its stomach is generally filled with fish. The colour of its flesh is orange- 

 yellow, its flavour coarse and indifferent. There is a good account of this great trout in the 

 last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, under the article Angling. 



8. Salmo faeio. The Common trout, the Burn trout of Scotland, is generally known 

 throughout Great Britain. It varies very gi'eatly in the hue of its body and the colour and 

 brilliancy of its markings. Plate 92, f. 3, A and B, represents the head of an individual nine 

 inches and a half long to the end of the scales on the caudal, and ten inches and three quar- 

 ters to the extremity of that fin. The under jaw is shorter than the top of the head, and the 

 ridges of the palate bones and vomer, into which the teeth are implanted, are much more 

 prominent than in any other species that has come under my observation. The vomerine 

 teeth run far back in a double row. The specimen was taken in the Lake of Lochenbreck, in 

 Galloway, and had the dusky yellowish hue of this trout when it inhabits dark waters. A 

 much more glittering kind is taken in the Nith, Tweed, and other clear rivers, but I have not 

 the means of ascertaining whether there be any structural difference or not. Mr. Yarrell 

 informs me that the Salmo fario has 58 dorsal vertebrae. 



9. Char. Torgoch, or Red-bellied trout. Plate 92, f. 5, A and B, exhibits the head of 

 a female char taken in Llyn Cawellyn, near the foot of Snowdon, on the 17th of January, 



* The spots of my specimen of the Salmo Lemanus are considerably smaller than those of Loch Leven trout, but the 

 case might be different were a greater number of individuals compared. 



