As the spawning season approaches the female loses her silvery color, becomes more slimy, the scales on the back partly sink into the skin, and the flesh changes from salmon red and becomes variously paler, from the loss of the oil, the degree of paleness varying much with individuals and with inhabitants of different rivers. In the lower Sacramento the flesh of the quinnat in either spring or fall is rarely pale. In the Columbia, a few with pale flesh are sometimes taken in spring, and a good many in the fall. In Frazer's River the fall run of the quinnat is nearly worthless for canning purposes, because so many are white meated. In the spring very few are white meated, but the number increases towards fall, when there is every variation, some having red streaks running through them, others being red toward the head and pale toward the tail. The red and pale ones cannot be distinguished externally, and the color is dependent neither on age nor sex. There is said to be no difference in the taste, but there is no market for canned salmon not of the conventional orange color. As the season advances, the differences between the males and the females become more and more marked, and keep pace with the development of the milt, as is shown by dissection. The males have: (_a_.) The premaxillaries and the tip of the lower jaw more and more prolonged; both of them becoming finally strongly and often extravagantly hooked, so that either they shut by the side of each other like shears, or else the mouth cannot be closed. (_b_.) The front teeth become very long and canine-like, their growth proceeding very rapidly, until they are often half an inch long. (_c_.) The teeth on the vomer and tongue often disappear. (_d_.) The body grows more compressed and deeper at the shoulders, so that a very distinct hump is formed; this is more developed in _0. gorbuscha_, but is found in all. (_e_.) The scales disappear, especially on the back, by the growth of spongy skin. (_f_.) The color changes from silvery to various shades of black and red or blotchy, according to the species. The blue-back turns rosy red, the dog salmon a dull, blotchy red, and the quiunat generally blackish.