THE BROOK TR O UTS OR CHARS. 4 7 3 



days, and the young fish begin to lead an independent life. Now the 

 rate of growth is determined by the amount of food consumed. Some 

 two-year-old fisli weigh a jiound, some half an ounce, as Mr. Stone's ex- 

 perience show. In domestication growth is more even. Mr. Ainsworth's 

 estimate allows an average of two ounces for yearlings, a quarter of a 

 pound for two-year-olds, half a pound for three-year-olds, and a pound 

 for four-year-olds. Wild fish often grow much faster. One of a large 

 number of Rangely I'rout, tagged by Mr. George Shepard Page in 1871, 

 and caught in 1873, was found to have grown in two years from half a 

 pound to two pounds and one-quarter. All two-year-old Trout and some 

 yearlings can reproduce their kind. 



The best description of the spawning habits is that by James W. 

 Miles : 



"His whole wooing is the most polite attention and the gentlest of 

 persuasions. He moves continually to and fro before his mate, parading 

 his bright colors, while she rests quietly, with her head up stream, vibrat- 

 ing her fins just sufficiently to keep her from floating down. At Water- 

 ville. Wis., I had the opportunity of watching their habits. A pair of 

 large Trout had selected a spot near the bank of the stream, where the 

 water was about ten inches deep. The female had fanned the gravel with 

 her tail and anal fin until it was clean and white, and had succeeded in 

 excavating a cavity. They were frightened away as I came to the edge 

 of the bank. Concealing myself behind a Avillow bush, I watched their 

 movements. The male returned first, reconnoitering the vicinity, and, 

 satisfying himself that the coast was clear, spent a half hour in endeavor- 

 ing to coax the female to enter the nest. She, resting half concealed 

 in the weeds, a few feet away, seemed unwilling to be convinced that the 

 danger was gone ; and he, in his full, bright colors, sailed backward and 

 forward from the nest to his mate, rubbing himself against her, and swim- 

 ming off again in a wide circle close along the bank, as if to show her 

 how far he could venture without finding danger. She finally entered the 

 nest." 



Brook Trout seldom exceed two or three pounds, and a five-pounder is 

 thought a monster. St. Lawrence Sea Trout usually weigh two and one- 

 half pounds, though they are not seldom caught weighing six or eight. 

 A famous locality for large fish is the headwaters of the Androscoggin 

 River in Northwestern Maine. Prof. Agassiz, in i860, obtained one of 

 them which weighed eleven pounds. The well-known specimen taken 

 by Mr. George Shepard Page in 1867, in Rangely Lake, weighed ten 



