1894-95-] Glimpses of Trout. 143 



trout, though these I would not include amongst their natural 

 enemies. I refer more particularly to rats. There is no doubt 

 that the changes which have taken place in the habits of the 

 race of Mus in recent years are most remarkable. I have 

 therefore no desire to dogmatise on the subject, as I believe 

 it possible that the brown rat (Mus dccumanus) will enter the 

 water and secure a sickly or half-stranded trout. I have known 

 a pair of hoodie-crows, followed by their brood, discover a number 

 of trout imprisoned in a small pool in a burn on the Ladykirk 

 estate, which after a protracted drought was almost dried up. 

 Attracted by their clamour, I wondered what was the cause 

 of their excitement, till T observed one of them fly out of the 

 burn with a trout in its beak, to be immediately followed by 

 the whole brood. Alighting on a field, the trout was divided 

 among the young ones, when the parent bird again repaired to 

 the burn. Going to the spot, I found about a dozen trout im- 

 prisoned as described. In similar circumstances I have not the 

 slightest doubt that the rat would take advantage of the occasion, 

 but that he is a " deadly enemy " to trout is highly improbable. 

 The water-vole, commonly called the water-rat, has also been 

 blamed for destroying trout. This I do not believe. Having 

 all my life taken an interest in such matters, and having shot 

 and dissected numbers of these animals for the express pur- 

 pose of examining the contents of their stomachs, I have been 

 forced to the conclusion that their food is strictly of a vegetable 

 nature. 



Strange to say, among the greatest enemies to trout, with 

 the exception, perhaps, of pike, are their own species. A 

 trout two months old has been known to devour a number 

 about half its age. Such are their cannibalistic tendencies, 

 that unless they have plenty of insect food they will devour 

 each other so long as there is much difference in their size. 

 What is sometimes found in the stomach of a trout, as well as 

 the size to which that organ will distend, would hardly be 

 credited. In the Museum of Science and Art there is a trout 

 stuffed which weighed 1 2 lb., and from the stomach of which I 

 took, after it was caught, six of its own species, which weighed 

 in the aggregate li lb. In another, which scaled 14 lb., I found 

 a trout partly assimilated, but which must have weighed 8 or 

 9 ounces, besides no fewer than five adult frogs. A third 



