MILNER FISHEKIES OF THE GREAT LAKES. 53 



the most polite atteutioii and the gentlest of persuasioos. He moves 

 continually to and fro before her, parading- his bright colors, while she 

 rests quietly, with her head up-stream, vibrating her fins just sufficiently 

 to prevent floating down. 



While at Mr. H. F. Dousman's breeding-house, near Waterville, Wis., 

 early in the winter, I had the opportunity of observing the habits of 

 the trout on their spawning-grounds. 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 tin until it 

 "was clean and white, and had succeeded, by strong sweeps and flappings 

 of her caudal fin against the bottom, in excavating a cavity in the bed 

 of gravel. 



December 14. — A pair of large trout were frightened away from their 

 nest as I came to the edge of the bank. Concealing myself behind a 

 willow-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 endeavoring 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 swimming oft" again in a wide circle 

 close along the bank, as if to show her how far he could venture with- 

 out finding danger. She finally entered the nest. 



December 15. — Carried out a bufl;alo-robe and shawl to the top of the 

 flume, near the head spring. Found a pair of trout in possession of a 

 nest. They fled at sight of me, and having got comfortably settled in 

 the robes, I laj' quietly for fifteen minutes before the male approached. 

 He swam directly over the nest, and examined in the vicinity for a few 

 seconds, and then swam off to find his mate. A close observation de- 

 tected a scar on his side, possibl}^ received in a battle with some other 

 male. It served as a very distinct mark to identify him among others. 

 He returned to the spot once, driving off another male before she came 

 with him. They moved along in the vicinity of the nest, she turning 

 and swimming away for a short distance once or twice, and he attend- 

 ing her devotedl3'. She finally settled in a nest about five feet from my 

 position. He drove away a small trout several times without any very 

 violent demonstrations. She soon began to turn in the nest as if ex- 

 amining its condition, and again settled quietly, keeping up the slow 

 fanning movement with her tail, the anal fin brushing the pebbles 

 as large as pigeon-eggs that were in the cavity. 



Soon after she rolled on her side, made three convulsive flutters, 

 striking the pebbles with her tail, and sending up a little cloud of gravel 

 and sand. Immediately afterward she turned short round, as if look- 

 ing at the condition of the nest, or its contents, and once I thought I 

 detected her in taking some gravel, possibly an egg, in her mouth. She 

 lay resting quietly on the bottom for a short time, whilethe male played 



