62 NATURAL SPAWNING. 



around, seemingly out of curiosity or fun ; but, no matter 

 what their size, they leave as soon as the husband, for the 

 time being, darts at them. These intruders are, perhaps, 

 waiting for a chance to devour some of the stray eggs 

 which the female drops. The male and female being 

 paired, go to the chosen place. They lie side by side to- 

 gether when not disturbed ; but the male is occupied most 

 of the time in driving. oif intruders who are continually 

 swimming around. It is very curious to see a little male 

 with a big female in charge. Usually the little Trout 

 clear the way for the large ones without a show of resis- 

 tance. In the ponds when the Trout are fed the largest 

 ones get the meal while the little ones get out of the way, 

 and swim to the further side of the pond, and even if the 

 meat is thrown where they are they will not take it until 

 they have waited to see whether it is not the pleasure of 

 the big fellows to come and get it. At the spawning sea- 

 son all this is changed, they will attack a Trout thee times 

 their size if he comes within a few feet of the female. 

 Very often while the male is driving off one, another one 

 on the opposite side will make tender advances to the fe- 

 male ; quick as a dart the proper husband returns to chase 

 the gay deceiver. In fact his time is fully occupied with 

 chasing off intruders. Very often if they are too numer- 

 ous the female will dart from the nest over which she 

 hovers, to help her chosen mate. It may be imagined 

 that there is not much time for love-making, however, one 

 compensation is that there are no longer any battles. All 

 intruders literally " turn tail " as soon as chased. They 

 seem to recognize the I'ights cf the married pair, but act as 

 if they could not restrain their propensity for harmless 

 mischief Of course it only looks so; the intruders are 

 after eggs. We do not know of any animals which enjoy 

 a sense of the ludicrous, or what is commonly called fun. 

 Still there are few sights more interesting to the lover of 



