SIGNS OF SPAWNING NATURAL SPAWNING. 61 



signs, and by no means universal. It is only in the spawn- 

 ing season that difference of the sexes can be told with any 

 certainty. As this season approaches the differences be- 

 come more marked. The difference in size may be more 

 easily distinguished, as the eggs grow large and till tlie 

 belly of the female. It will not do to mistake food for 

 eggs. A Trout recently gorged with food looks just like a 

 female full of eggs ; but the food soon disappears as, a Trout 

 is an animal of quick digestion, while the swelling caused 

 by the maturing eggs gets larger as the spawning season 

 approaches. The colors of the lish, also, are at that time 

 a guide. The female turns to a dark and sombre hue, 

 while the colors of the males grow very brilliant. 



Natural Spawning. — As the spawning season approach- 

 es, the Trout seek places in the creek adapted to tiie pur- 

 pose. The places sought after are a pebbly bottom in 

 shallow water close to the spring or head waters of the 

 creek. Trout will work their way up over the shallows 

 of a stream clear to the inlet ; but if there are springs in 

 the bottom of the creek (which is the case with almost all 

 creeks) they will invariably spawn there, without going 

 up to the inlet, or if they tind a shallow place with gentle 

 current and gravel bottom anywhere in the creek, they 

 will spawn there. (Very few of the eggs laid in such a place 

 will come to maturity unless there ha})peus to be a spring 

 there). The males sometimes go up the stream first, nut 

 always. At this season the males engage in lierce contest 

 for the possession of the female. These battles often end in 

 death to one or both of the combatants. That these battles 

 arc iierce, the deep wounds left on the dead bodies uf the 

 slain will bear witness. I have known them to light for two 

 days, and then both be killed. However, when they are 

 once mated the battles cease and the pair are hardly ever 

 seriously interfered with. Intruders in any quantity come 



