V.-EGGS RECEIVED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES AT COLD 

 SPRLNG HARBOR, NEW YORK, AND RETAINED OR FORWARDED 

 DURING THE SEASONS OF 1883-'84 AND 1884-'85. 



By Fred Mather. 



A. Brown trout (Salmofario). — February 28, 1883, I received two 

 lots of eggs of the European brook trout, which, to distiuguish from our 

 Dative fish, I have called by the English name of " brown trout," as 

 more likely to strike the popular fancy in this country than the Ger- 

 man name of " bachforelle." The eggs were consigned to me personally 

 by Herr von Behr, president of the Deutsche Fischerei-Verein, and con- 

 sisted of 00,000 of a large kind, and 20,000 from streams tributary to 

 the Upper Rhine, which were smaller, but were of the same species. 

 The eggs were very far advanced when received, many having hatched 

 in the packages, and a great number of the eggs were indented, an in- 

 jury caused by lack of moisture. An announcement of the arrival of 

 these eggs in Forest and Stream brought applications for them, and on 

 March 10, I sent 10,000 of the large and 2,000 of the small kind to the 

 New York Station at Caledonia. On March 21 I sent to the U. S. Fish 

 Commission at Northville, Mich., 2,000 of the large and 3,000 of the 

 small kind. In the hatchery under my charge at Cold Spring Harbor, 

 the large eggs hatched head first, and I never knew any of the salmon 

 family to live if they broke the shell in that manner. The large fish all 

 died in from three to seven days after hatching. The smaller kind did 

 better, and some 4,000 were placed in a rearing pond 25 feet long, 6 feet 

 wide, and 3 feet deep, with vertical sides of boards, which extended 1 foot 

 above the water. When six months old the pond contained several 

 hundred fine fish fully 6 inches in length, as plump, well-fed trout as 

 ever delighted the eye of a fish-culturist. We were so proud of these 

 fish that we ofteu caught them to show visitors, and as often as we dis- 

 turbed them we would find many dead ones on the ground the next day. 

 It was not until our stock was nearly exhausted that we noted the con- 

 nection between the disturbance and the deaths, and removed the fish 

 to safer quarters. The tendency to suicide in this fish seems unknown 

 in Germany, and has not been manifested here since the transfer to a 

 larger and deeper pond. I have (September, 1885) perhaps forty of 

 these fish two and a half years old, which are as beautiful trout as I 

 ever saw, and from which spawn is expected in a few months. The 

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