252 The Trouts of America 



Daniel Lambert among fishes, as it certainly is 

 the largest and tamest fighter of our fresh-water 

 salmonoids. 



The rainbow is the hardiest of the salmon- 

 trouts, for it will thrive in water of a higher tem- 

 perature than is suitable for other species, and 

 does not appear to be affiicted with the ordinary 

 diseases of fish to the extent that other species 

 are. Fungus is not apt to ensue when the skin 

 of the rainbow is bruised ; this is, doubtless, 

 owing to its active habits in foraging for food, 

 as it seeks all sections and conditions of the 

 stream, though loving best the highly aerated 

 waters of a rapid current. 



Although a gourmand in its appetite, it is 

 cleanly in feeding, liking best the live minnow or 

 the insect struggling for life on the surface; a 

 swimming grasshopper is irresistible, and no fish 

 rises so freely to a cast of artificial flies. 



The differentiation between the rainbow and 

 the steelhead lies apparently and solely in the 

 scales ; those on the latter being always smaller 

 than in the typical " red-sides." Many intelligent 

 and observant anglers believe that the young rain- 

 bows, so called, hatched in the brooks from spawn 

 of the steelhead, remain in the mountain streams 



