Brown Trout 275 



day, a habit equally prevalent among other trouts 

 and strikingly shown by the small-mouthed black 

 bass. In English waters the practice of the 

 brown trout of rising viciously to the surface at 

 any moving thing is acutely developed ; it is said 

 to rise at swallows skimming over the surface, and 

 that on one occasion a tame gull had its leg 

 broken by a fiercely r ismg fario. J. J. Armstead, 

 an English fish culturist, relates a singular inci- 

 dent in which it appears that " The biter was bit." 

 He says that he was standing by one of his ponds 

 when a large bee came along and took a " bee- 

 line " right into the water. Undismayed, the 

 insect went spinning along the surface. Sud- 

 denly there was a splash and the bee went down, 

 but in a few seconds rose to the surface somewhat 

 out of gear. In two hours afterward a trout 

 floated dead on the top of the water — a priori^ 

 the bee stung the fish unto death ; a posteriori^ 

 the fish killed was another fellow that died from 

 natural or other causes, and when dead arose to 

 the surface. 



In Great Britain the pursuit of the brown trout 

 is earnest and reduced to a science. Innumerable 

 dressings of flies are in use, some with cork 

 bodies and fish-scale wings, and many without 



