448 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



once to its early policy of aiding and encouraging our fisheries, which 

 all governments have found necessary, to secure their successful prose- 

 cution, and recognize the importance of this rational industry. 



Note. — The convention which passed these resolutions contained 160 delegates 

 from nearly all the fishing ports along the New England coast. Benjamin H. Corliss 

 was chairman. The committee on resolutions consisted of Sly vester Cunningham, of 

 Gloucester ; Oscar Comstock, of New York ; O. B. Whitten, of Portland ; T. B. Baker, 

 of Harwich, and Luther Maddocks, of Boothbay. Letters of sympathy were read from 

 Senators Hoar, Dawes, and Frye, and from Congressmen Collins, Morse, and Stone, 



157 — SEGREGATION OF THE SEXES OF TROUT. 



By LIVINGSTON STONE. 

 [Eeply to inquiry of S. M. Crawford.*] 



At or about tbe spawning season, it is customary for the two sexes 

 of trout to segregate, the males collecting in one large body by them- 

 selves, the females doing the same, or, more correctly speaking, I 

 think, being left to do the same, as the herding together seems to be 

 more active on the part of the males. Tbis coutinues for a consider- 

 able time, about the period of the spawning season, and is not the ex- 

 ception, but the rule. The same is true also of salmon, as is well known 

 among salmon fishermen. It frequently happens that a whole run of 

 salmon for several days will be composed almost entirely of males, the 

 effect of which, of course, is to leave the females together by them- 

 selves, whether they take an active part or not in bringing about the 

 separation. In fact, in hauling a seine frequently in a salmon river 

 for some time, it is generally very noticeable that the sexes alternate 

 in comiug up the river about the spawning season, a large body of 

 males being followed by a large body of females, and these by a run of 

 males again, and so on through the season. 



In the case of the trout mentioned in Mr. Crawford's letter, it is my 

 impression that the males, in accordance with the custom just described, 

 had separated from the females, and had retired to some other part of 

 the lake (or stream), where if Mr. Crawford had fished he would have 

 caught nothing but males. I suppose Professor Brooks would say that 

 the preponderance of females was probably the result of an exception- 

 ally favorable environment, but I am, nevertheless, very strongly ot 

 the opinion that there was the usual number of males in the lake (or 

 stream), though Mr. Crawford did not happen to find them, and that 

 no general preponderance of females actually existed. 



Charlestown, N. H., January 12, 1885. 



*Mr. Crawford, in a letter from Stark Water, N. H, January C, 1885, says : On De- 

 cember 10 I began to catch the trout through the ice in six or seven feet of water, 

 v, itli a beardless hook. At first I caught males and then females, obtaining about fife- 

 males tn 3 males. Soon tbe male (rout became more scarce, and of the 40 or 50 

 I rout I have caught lately, I got but one male. The males I took at first I put in a 

 large bos with the females, and I have used the male trout until tb.ey are exhausted, 

 Can you explain these singular facts? 



