THE SALMON. 
147 
The three most striking characters of the parr, in contradistinction to 
the common trout, are — its tail being more forked, its having only 2 or 3 
spots on the opercula , and its want of dark-coloured spots beneath the 
lateral line. The P. fin of the parr is larger, and the hinder margin of 
its operculum less angular, than in the trout. These two parrs have from 
1 to 3 spots on opercula (pre-opercle and opercle) ; these are generally 
deep black, but they vary, some being rather faint ; on one specimen 
there is a bright scarlet, in another a faintly reddish spot. They all 
exhibit, more or less, spots below the lateral line, but these (with the 
exception of a single dark spot on one), as well as the spots on the line, 
are scarlet. Some of them have but 1 or 2 spots beneath it ; others have 
them sparingly in two irregular rows. The three specimens of trout have 
many darkish spots below lateral line. 
The remark of Pennant, that “the adipose fin is never tipped with red, 
nor is the edge of the anal white,” can only be considered as generally 
correct. Two of my parrs do, though very faintly, show red on the adipose 
fin, and one half of them have the base of the anal fin white ; but on the 
parr it is less conspicuous than in the trout, in consequence of the con- 
trast produced by the adjoining rays on the latter being dusky, whilst on 
the parr they are so light as to be yellowish, or almost transparent. 
Sir Wm. Jardine observes (Edin. Phil. Jour.), that the parr 
“ takes any bait, at any time, with the greatest, freedom ; and hundreds may be 
taken when no trout, either large or small, will rise, though abundant among 
them.” 
In the present instance three trout were taken, and ten parr, by fly-fishing, 
and on several occasions my angling friends have remarked to me, when 
the day turned out unfavourable for their sport, and bright sunshine came 
on, that they could catch only parr. I chiefly allude to Glenwherry river. 
About an hour after the above was written, I saw in Belfast 31 other 
specimens of parr and common trout, taken along with those just 
described. The angler caught yesterday 62 of these fishes altogether in 
Glenwherry river. 
Of these 31, 25 are trout, nearly all about 5 inches in length. I at 
once distinguished them from the parr, by the before-named three striking 
characters, and need only further observe that some of the trout had all 
the spots below the lateral line more or less reddish, though on none were 
they all bright scarlet as on the parr ; these spots are, however, much 
more numerous on the former than the latter. Some of these trout had 
only from 1 to 3 spots on opercula like the parr, but they were less regu- 
larly disposed (on the parr they are generally in a row) and less striking 
in colour. The white basal margin, from the reason above assigned, is 
(though not taken separately) a good mark of S. Fario. I looked to it in 
all the 31. Small as these trout are (from 4 to 6 inches), not one exhibits 
transverse markings, as do all the specimens of the parr, one of these, 7f 
inches long, showing them as strongly as the smallest. 
When conversing with the man who caught these fishes, he said that 
he knows the parr from the young trout by its mode of leaping at the 
fly ; it leaps higher, in a more lively manner, and wider of its mark. On 
inquiring why the parr is so partial to Glenwherry river, compared with 
others, such as the Six-Mile Water, the Glenavy river, and the Collin Glen 
river, I found he attributed it to the gravelly shallows of that river. The 
Six-Mile Water flows over, he says, a soft bottom ; and he further observed, 
that in Galgorm water, or Clough river, a branch of the Main, the parr 
is very abundant, those streams being likewise gravelly. On remarking 
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