Breen | PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 483 
the heat of the day they frequent almost entirely the deeper pools, lying under 
overshadowing rocks or in the shade of some convenient log. In early morning or 
i late afternoon they come out and run more into the shallows and rapids, under which 
_ circumstances they bite best and furnish the finest sport. Like the average brook 
| trout, the species rarely attains any considerable size, ranging from 4 to 8 or more 
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inches inlength. Their colors are usually very bright, and for beauty this species 
takes rank among the foremost of its kind, and has been well called the “Golden 
Trout.” In this respect, however, it is subject to the usual variations obtaining in 
the family, the change of color not only accompanying a difference in locality, but 
being plainly discernible in individuals taken in different parts of the same stream 
not far distant. In fact, as a specific character, color in this family seems to be at 
its lowest value. The character of the bottom and water itself has much to do 
with this, and I remember to have fished in a small rivulet on one of the subalpine 
meadows not far from Mount Whitney, whose sluggish waters flowed over a bottom 
_ of dark mud, in which the color of the trout simulated very ¢losely its hue; they had 
lost nearly all the flashing iridescent tints characterizing the same species caught 
but a few hours before in another stream, and had become dull and somber hued. 
Accompanying this change of color was a correspondingly noticeable difference in 
habits and motions, and the several dozen trout caught that evening for supper were 
taken out with the hook with the display of very little more gameness than would 
be noticed in so many Horned Pout. On the contrary, in the clear rapid current of 
the mountain stream, a flash of sunlight is scarcely quicker than the gleam of gold 
and.silver seen for a single instant as the whirling waters are cut by one of these 
trout as he makes a rush from his lurking place for some chance morsel which is 
-_ being borne past him. The western trout are rarely as shy as their relatives of east- 
ern waters, and because of their numbers and the consequent scarcity of food are 
apt to be less fastidious; yet, even when most abundant, due caution must be used 
if one would be successful, and not every one can catch trout, even in the West. 
With the proper care in concealing one’s self, a pool may be almost decimated ere tbe 
alarm will be taken, and I have seen fifteen fair-sized trout taken from a single 
small pool in quick succession. 
During the present year other specimens have been sent to themuseum 
of the Leland Stanford Junior University, but in such very bad condi- 
tion that nothing could be made of them, except that they were evidently 
small-scaled trout of the mykiss type, nearest to the subspecies 
pleuriticus of the Colorado River, and not in any way related to the 
Rainbow trout, which inhabits most of the streams of the basin of Cali- | 
fornia. . 
The question of the relation of this trout to others in Kern River 
must be settled by further investigations, as also the question whether 
the Salmo agua-bonita itself is confined, as has been asserted, to the 
space in Volcano Creek between the two waterfalls, or whether in that 
part of the stream is found a variety different from the ordinary form. 
a oo 
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