Titcomb. — Some Fish-Cultural Notes 207 



A large school was seen feeding in the shallow water over a mud 

 bank in pond No. 1 on July 8th. The fry were probably ten days old 

 at this time. They were moving together in a compact mass under the 

 rigid discipline of the two parents who encircled the school and closed 

 in if there was a tendency to stray away. Straying away seemed to be 

 accidental, for with remarkable instinct they kept together. Occasionally 

 one of the parents moved into the midst of the school allowing the fry 

 to swim over and around her. The movements of the school when 

 foraging were very slow, spreading over the mud like a gigantic black 

 amoeba. Their food at this stage consisted of water-fleas, small Crus- 

 tacea, caddice worms, mayflies, etc. This school was shipped a day or 

 two thereafter and observations confined to scattered individuals taken 

 from the seine in other ponds. 



At Chautauqua Lake it was observed by the foreman that 

 after the young bullheads leave the nest one of the parents takes 

 the school to very shallow waters, about four inches in depth, 

 where they hover under the protection of the parent until the 

 yolk sac is absorbed. It is not definitely known whether it is 

 the male or female which guards the young. He adds the rather 

 interesting statement that when disturbed, the parent fish will 

 scatter the young, at the same time swirling the water and 

 roiling it for protection. 



Discussion 



Mr. John M. Crampton, New Haven, Conn. : I understand Mr. 

 Titcomb to say that he developed a two and a half inch trout from the 

 1st of January to the 1st of April. What was the itemperature of 

 the water — cold? 



Mr. Titcomb : Spring water. 



Mr. E. T. D. Chambers, Quebec, Canada: Were these fish fed 

 anything besides liver? 



Mr. Titcomb: Yes, we feed them beef livers and beef melts and 

 pork livers and pork melts, principally. I do not compel the foreman to 

 take the cheapest kind of food, because if he has any trouble with his 

 fish he will put the responsibility on me. But I think it is a fact that 

 in some waters we can use melts entirely in the raising of fish, while on 

 the other hand there are some waters which will not admit of the use 

 of melts. The Chautauqua hatchery trout are raised on beef liver; 

 the foreman there has had trouble when he has attempted to use melts ; 

 he also objects to pork liver. After the fish are two inches in length hs 

 also uses carp. 



Mr. S. B. Hawks, Bennington, Vt. : Mr. Titcomb referred to the 

 placing of 250 fish in a can. What is the size of the can? 



Mr. Titcomb : It is a regulation ten-gallon can ; in other words a 



