Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/245

Rh upon crustacea and water-insects. Most are inhabitants of fresh-waters, either permanently or periodically; a very few are marine. One hundred and thirty-two species are included in the Family by the Prince of Canino, which are widely scattered over the Old and New World.

The true Salmons (including the Trouts) are the most completely toothed of all fishes, having a row of pointed teeth in the maxillaries, the intermaxillaries, the palatals and mandibularies, and two rows on the vomer, the tongue, and the pharynx,—so that there is scarcely a part of the interior of the mouth which is not bristling with this armature. The general form is spindle-shaped; the body is clothed with scales, of which the head is deprived; the mouth is cleft to the eyes or beyond them; the ventrals are placed under the dorsal, and the anal under the adipose: the belly is smooth; the air-bladder extends the whole length of the abdomen, and communicates with the gullet. The tip of the lower jaw is bent upwards in old males, and received into a notch above. Many species are marked with spots, and, in early youth, all are clouded with transverse dusky patches.

We have at least seven species of this genus in Great Britain, the common Salmon, five which bear the name of Trouts, and the Char. Of these the Salmon, the Salmon Trout, and the Bull Trout, are migratory, periodically ascending rivers to deposit their spawn, and then returning to the sea, exhausted with the effort. The others