The Brook Trout 297 



a little nest in the gravel, fanning it clean with 

 her tail and removing the larger pebbles in her 

 mouth ; the male, all the while, moving slowly and 

 gracefully above, below, and around his mate, as if 

 to let her see and admire the gorgeous bridal 

 robe of olive velvet and gold with which nature 

 has adorned him. After displaying for a few 

 moments with a natural vanity the beauty of his 

 nuptial array, approaches her, rubs his body 

 against her side; and soon after she enters the 

 nest, emits a few eggs, which the male fertilizes 

 by ejecting milt upon them. This process 

 continues until the reproductive act is ended. 

 Scarcely five per cent of the ova of the female is 

 productive, owing to several causes, the main one 

 being the destruction of the eggs by the hordes of 

 minnows and other spawn-eating water animals ; 

 the trout, both male and female, leaving the ova 

 unprotected immediately after spawning. 



The type of the thirteen varietal forms of the 

 charrs is the brook beauty of the Atlantic slope 

 — Salvcliiius fontinalis, "living in springs." It 

 is the fish beloved by American anglers, an 

 ichthyic confuser of the savants of the last 

 decade in their desire to reduce the charrs of 

 our waters into one polymorphic species, which 



