45 o AMERICAN FISHES. 



deposit their eggs in deep furrows which they plow up in the sandy or 

 gravelly bottom of the stream, usually near the verge of a rapid. Euro- 

 pean observers state that the furrows are shaped by the noses of the two 

 parent fish, every nest being filled with eggs before the next one is made, 

 and the first covered up by the sand which is loosened in digging the 

 second, chiefly by the action of the current. Mr. Atkins observed a 

 female Land-locked Salmon excavating a nest by turning on her side and 

 flopping violently against the bottom with her tail, while the male was 

 engaged in driving away rivals and predaceous foes. Spawning is not 

 accomplished at once, but the eggs, are deposited by installments, as fast 

 as they mature, during a period of from five to twelve days. " When the 

 furrow is made, the male and the female retire to a little distance, one to 

 the one side, the other to the other side of the furrow ; they then throw 

 themselves on their sides, again come together, and rubbing together both 

 shed their spawn into the furrow at the same time." I'his is the observa- 

 tion of Mr. Ellis on the European Salmon, and a similar habit has been 

 observed by Mr. Whitcher in Canada. In the tributaries of the St. 

 Lawrence, spawning begins by the middle of October; in Maine, with 

 both Land-locked and Sea Salmon, a week or two later, and it is presum- 

 able that in the Connecticut it will be found to occur well along towards 

 December. In Great Britain and in the Rhine the season begins in 

 October or November, continuing in some rivers till February. 



A YOUNG SALMON. 



Salmon eggs are about one-quarter of an inch in diameter, and of a 

 bright reddish or yellowish hue. English fish-culturists estimate the num- 

 ber of eggs yielded by a large fish at i,ooo to each pound of her weight ; 



