The Brook Trout 301 



larger fish of the same ilk, the autocrat of the 

 pool, whose simple presence is a sign mark — 

 " No trespass here." 



Gifted with aesthetic proclivities, and as, we 

 have seen, at the same time exhibiting those of 

 the athlete, the trout has been accused of being 

 a coarse, if not a gross, feeder, because he has 

 been known to eat small water snakes. True, 

 he is somewhat of a glutton, for I have seen a 

 trout on more than one occasion take a fly with 

 the tail of a minnow protruding from his mouth. 

 We also know that, with the stomach apparently 

 filled to repletion, they will rise lazily to a fly 

 and flop it with the tail to drown or disable it 

 and then leave it floating down-stream. But 

 this only shows that the choicest of the trout's 

 menu is irresistible to our water sprite, and he 

 may be in this respect likened unto the gourmet, 

 who dallies with dainty bits when he is gorged 

 with the daintiest of them. Moreover, our 

 stream beauty will not touch carrion of any 

 description ; his food must be of the air born, 

 or of the stream fresh and pure, and as to his 

 eating snakes, snakes eat trout, big and little, if 

 they can capture and swallow them, but it is to 

 be doubted very much if our charr could be 



