256 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



established in New York, Pennsylvania, Mai\yland, Missouri, 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Colorado, and several other 

 states. This trout has proved to be well adapted to the region 

 east of the Rocky mountains, which has no native black spotted 

 species, though the western streams and lakes contain many 

 forms in a high state of development. 



Size. Under favorable conditions the brown trout has been 

 credited with a weight of 22 pounds and a length of 35 inches. 

 In New Zealand rivers, where it was introduced v^ith unusual 

 success, it now approximates equal size; but in most localities 



10 pounds is about the limit of weight and 5 or 6 pounds is a 

 good average, while in -some regions the length seldom exceeds 

 1 foot and the weight ranges from ^ pound to 1 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 

 measured only about 1 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 move- 

 ments it is swift, and it leaps over obstructions like the salmon. 

 It feeds usually in the morning and evening, is more active dur- 

 ing 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 more rapidly 

 when fed on insects. 



Reproduction. Spawning begins in October and continues 

 through December and sometimes into January. The eggs are 

 from i to ^ 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 



