TROIJT IX S.A. WATEUS 201 



the dorsal fin. Sometimes they have a great i)rei)oii- 

 derance of black spots with very few red, others assume 

 a beautiful yellow, almost golden colour, as in the White 

 River, Mitchell's Pass, Ceres, and others a very dark 

 brown, almost black. The variations are in correspon- 

 dence Avith natural peculiarities of their daily surround- 

 ings and food, the colour of the sand, stones or weeds in 

 the bottom or sides of the river, the clarity of the water, 

 exposure to sunshine, etc. The Brown Trout prefers 

 speedy, clean, broken water and is a past master in 

 selecting quiet, sheltered spots where he can lie and 

 watch for his pre}'. During the day the larger fish re- 

 main in their haunts but at evening and during the 

 night they roam about in search of food. 



When the spawning season arrives the lower jaw of the 

 old males elongates upwards, as does that of the salmon, 

 but not to the same degree. From observations and 

 careful autopsies covering some years before and after 

 the spawning season, the author believes that when some 

 females are over carrying their spawn others have none. 

 The ])rocess of fecundating the eggs is very interesting, 

 and can be seen from the road bridge in Ceres village 

 during July. The female makes a depression in the 

 gravel of the river bed with her tail by a sweeping 

 movement and ejects the ova into it; afterwards the 

 male fertilises the mass of ova by emitting and covering 

 it with the milt. 



The operation takes about a week to complete. The 

 female usually discharges all her ova in a day, but the 

 male takes about six days to liquify and discharge his 

 milt. During those days the fish jealously guard their 

 deposit, the cock fish chasing away any other that may 

 be approaching his preserve. They then cover the deposit 

 with gravel by sweeping it with their tails and leave 

 the rest to Nature and Chance. After a rest in the 

 gravel as already described, two small black spots develop 

 in the embrvo. These are the future eves of the fish and 



