YOUNG TROUT CAUGHT IN WEBS. 



Since finishing the body of this work I have been engaged in hatch- 

 ing out Whitefish and have discovered something which I wish to note 

 here. There is a small worm which is a favorite food of Trout and 

 many other kinds of fish. This worm is one of the greatest enemies 

 which the young fry have. It spins a web in the water to catch young 

 fish, just as a spider does on land to catch flies. I have seen them make 

 the web and take the fish. The web is as perfect as that of the spider 

 and as much mechanical ingenuity is displayed in its construction. It 

 is made as quickly and in the same way as a spider's, bj^ fastening the 

 threads at different points and going back and forth until the web is 

 finished. The threads are not strong enough to hold the young Trout 

 after the umbilical sac is absorbed, but the web will stick to the fins and 

 get wound around the head and gills and soon kills the fish. I have 

 often seen it on the young Trout and it has been a great mj^stery and 

 caused me many hours, days and weeks of study to find out what was 

 * wound around the heads and fins of my young Trout and killed them. 

 I did not find out until lately, while watching recently hatched White- 

 fish. These are much smaller than the Trout when they begin to swim, 

 and they were caught and held by the web. I found ten small White- 

 fish caught in one web in one night. This web was spun in a little 

 Whitefish preserve, into which I had put one hundred young fish. The 

 threads spun by this worm seem to be much finer than the common 

 spider's web, and they are not visible in the water until the sediment 

 collects upon them. They can then be seen very plainly. These webs 

 cannot be spun where there is much current and can be easily seen 

 in still water by a close observer. 



