334 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



\\-a-; introduced with unusual success, it now approximates equal size ; but in most 

 localities IO pounds is about the limit of weight and 5 or 6 pounds is a good average, 

 while in some regions the length seldom exceeds i foot, and the weight ranges from 

 Yi pound to I pound. In the United States a wild specimen, seven years old, 

 weighed about 11 pounds. In a well in Scotland an individual aged 15 years meas- 

 ured only about I foot in length. These illustrations will serve to show how much 

 the growth of a Brown Trout is affected by its surroundings and food supply. The 

 species has been known to become sexually mature when two years old and 8 inches 

 long. 



Habits. The Brown Trout thrives in clear, cold, rapid streams and at the 

 mouths of streams tributary to lakes. In its movements it is swift, and it leaps over 

 obstructions like the Salmon. It feeds usually in the morning and evening, is more 

 active during evening and night, and often lies quietly in deep pools or in the 

 shadow of overhanging bushes and trees for hours at a time. It feeds on insects and 

 their larvae, worms, mollusks and small fishes, and, like its relative, the Rainbow 

 Trout, it is fond of the eggs of fishes. In Europe it is described as rising eagerly 

 to the surface in pursuit of gnats, and is said to grow most rapidly when fed on 

 insects. 



Reproduction. Spawning begins in October and continues through December 

 and sometimes into January. The eggs are from one-sixth to one-fifth of an inch in 

 diameter and yellowish or reddish in color; they are deposited at intervals during a 

 period of many days in crevices between stones, under projecting roots of trees, and 

 sometimes in nests excavated by the spawning fishes. The parents cover the eggs 

 to some extent with gravel. The hatching. period varies according to temperature 

 from 40 to 70 days. Females aged three years furnish on the average about 350 

 eggs each, but individuals of this age have yielded as many as 700, and even at the 

 age of two years some females produce from 400 to 500. When they are' four or 

 five years old, the number of eggs has reached 1,500 to 2,000. The young thrive in 

 water with a temperature of about 50 F. Sterility in the females is common, and 

 breeding females have been observed to cease reproduction when eight years old. 



Qualities. The Brown Trout is in its prime from May to the last of September. 

 Its flesh is very digestible and nutritious, and deeper red than that of the Salmon 

 when suitable food is furnished ; the flavor and color, however, vary with food and 

 locality. Insect food produces the most rapid growth and best condition. This 

 species has been so long known as one of the noblest of the game fishes and its 

 adaptability for capture with artificial flies because of its feeding habits is so well 

 understood that I need not dwell on these familiar details. 



