THE SALMON, THE TROUT, AND THE SHAD. 755 



Juncus or Garex) folded together, and measuring from one to four inches 

 in length. It is not possible that the trout had taken this as food, and I 

 explain its occurrence in the following manner : On these plants, some 

 insect or larva had settled, the trout had eagerly rushed toward it, 1 and 

 had seized the insect with the plant or portion of it. I was likewise 

 surprised to find in the stomachs of some individuals ripe eggs of the size 

 of pease, which, on closer examination, completely resembled the eggs 

 of the trout. I thought at first that these eggs had got in accidentally 

 while the fish was being dissected, 2 but I soon changed my opinion. 

 These eggs occurred, as I found later, in other specimens, not only in 

 the stomach but also in the entrails of trout, but when in the entrails 

 always deprived of their contents by having been digested, the empty 

 shells being folded together. This circumstance proves that this vora- 

 cious fish devours the spawn of its own species. 



Similar contents of stomach and entrails I found in ten other trout, 

 which I examined on the 6th December. In the entrails of one I found 

 besides, remnants of fish — vertebrae and bones enveloped in the reddish 

 mucus of the entrails. It was, of course, impossible to ascertain to what 

 species this fish belonged. 



On the 14th December, I received fifteen, and on the 16th, eight trout- 

 stomachs. In examining these, I was at once struck by the fact that 

 the remnants of food had considerably diminished. I found a large 

 quantity of partly-digested trout-eggs and a number of phrygauid 

 cases, but very few parts of other insects. The cause of this striking 

 diminution of food was, no doubt, the change in the weather. Till the 

 18th of December we had had mild sunny weather, but from that date 

 there had been considerable frosts. Two explanations of this diminu- 

 tion of food now became possible. The insects, larvse, &c, had either 

 sought a refuge from the severity of the weather in hidden nooks where 

 they were safe from the persecutions of the trout, or the lower tempera- 

 ture had diminished the liveliness of the trout and their desire for food. 

 The most probable explanation is that the two circumstances combined 

 in diminishing the quantity of food taken. On the 7th January, 1874, 

 I examined the last thirteen trout. The result, on the whole, was the 

 same as in the first instance. The weather had again become somewhat 

 milder, and the remnants of food had consequently increased. In two 

 of these trout, I at last found distinct remains of a fish. In one, I 

 found scales, bones, and barbels ; in the other, the tolerably well-pre- 

 served skeleton of a small fish. In this latter, the whole vertebral col- 

 umn, with portions of the bones and of the head, with three barbels, 

 )tad been preserved ; the total length of the skeleton was about four 

 inches. The trout in which I found this fish was about ten inches long, 



1 It is well known that the troat, when rushing toward the bait, also devours the 

 hook. Valenciennes, op. cit., p. 330. 



9 In dissecting the entrails, it occasionally happens that fresh scales of the same or 

 ether fish get in the oesophagus. 



