FISHES OP THE CONNECTICUT LAKES. 55 



The breeding time of the trout varies somewhat with the locality 

 and climate, and temperature of the water in which it lives. The 

 spawning season may be from the last part of September to Decem- 

 ber. In this region it probably varies also with the particular local- 

 ity, whether small pond or brook, lake or stream. Although we made 

 no observations in this direction, fish examined indicate that they 

 would probably spawn in October. As is w^ell known, trout spawn 

 in shallow water on fine gravel beds in which they make a small 

 hollow as a nest. The spawning beds may be a shoal in the lake or 

 m some stream which the fish ascends for the purpose. The eggs are 

 not all emitted at one time, but a female trout, usually attended by 

 one and the same male, occupies the nest for several days. The eggs 

 do not hatch until the following spring. The sexes differ much in 

 appearance at this time, especially in large fish. The head of the 

 male is longer, the lower jaw sometimes hooked, the mouth and teeth 

 larger, and the coloration is more brilliant, the belly and some of the 

 fins often being a brilliant red. The body of the male, too, has a 

 thick coat of mucus, almost or quite obscuring the scales. 



Under favorable conditions trout grow rapidly, but there is no way 

 of answering definitely the frequent interrogation. How long does 

 it take a trout to grow? According to circumstances a trout may 

 attain in 2 years only 3 or 4 inches in length, or it may attain 10 or 

 more inches. Under certain conditions, as in circumscribed localities 

 like a small brook, trout often reach maturity when only 4 or 5 inches 

 long and still bearing the marks of young fish. Again, mature trout 

 have been seen of not over 5 or 6 inches in length in which these 

 marks of youth had nearly or quite disappeared, and the male fish 

 was a facsimile of its larger brother of the lake. We have also seen 

 in lakes of considerable size trout 9 and 10 inches long still immature. 



The food and game qualities of this fish are so well known to most 

 residents and tourists in northern New England that it is unneces- 

 sary to say much on these points. Trout vary in these respects 

 in different waters and also, of course, with the age of the fish. Trout 

 9 or 10 inches long with pink flesh, from a cool stream or lake, of 

 which the previously mentioned Third Lake trout are examples, come 

 very near to being the proverbial " dish fit for a king." The cause 

 of the pink or reddish flesh of the trout is a much-discussed question 

 which has not, so far as we are aw^are, been scientifically investi- 

 gated. But Ave believe that the food of the fish has nothing further 

 to do with it than its fattening effect on the fish. It is the fat in the 

 tissues of the trout that is thus colored, and the plumper and fatter 

 the fish, the more highly colored is its flesh. It is the flavor of the 

 fat that gives the peculiar delicious flavor to trout so colored. A 

 white-meated trout may be plump, but it is of leaner flesh and lacks 

 the flavor of the other. Small trout in cold spring or mountain 



